Archive for Tom Speaks

Random Flickr-Blogging

June 2, 2006 / / 3 comments

I’ve been spending way too much time browsing images at Flickr. There are just so darn many of them–millions of them, with tens of thousands more being uploaded every day. I find it fascinating to browse at (more or less) random…and I end up killing hours at a time.

Not everyone renames the images they upload; a lot of the images are just titled with whatever image number the camera gave them. Of these, some have tags or descriptions, but others have no contextual information at all. I find this irritating. I also find it intriguing. Browsing untitled images, I’ve run across wedding photos, unidentified landscapes, a picture of a guy throwing up, a photo of a tank in Afghanistan. You could find anything.

And I had an idea: random Flickr-blogging.

So now I’m recruiting bloggers to participate.

Here’s how it works:

  1. Every week, we all start with the same randomly-generated four-digit number (call it ####).
  2. Go to Flickr and search for “IMG_####”. There should be anywhere from a few hundred to a couple thousand results.
  3. Choose an image from among the results, post it to your blog (be sure to include attribution and a link back to the page where the image appears–this is done automatically if you use the ‘blog this’ feature in Flickr).
  4. The rest is up to you. Write about the place shown in the image. Make up a story about it. Connect it to some issue you care about. Or just post it as an image you really like. Do whatever you want.

I’m going to start doing this on Mondays (because Mondays really need more amusement). If anyone is interested in participating, post in comments or e-mail me at tvhilton [AT] gmail [DOT] com. The more bloggers we get on board, the more interesting it’ll be.

Update: Debra, Maurinsky, SAP, Nobody in Particular, Ben Varkentine, and Foxydot are all joining the fun.

[Cross-posted at If I Ran the Zoo]

Friday Random Ten

June 2, 2006 / / Comments Off on Friday Random Ten

Siouxsie & the Banshees – The Passenger
John Foxx – Europe After the Rain
Wire – Two People in a Room
Material – The Hidden Gardens
Scenic – The Mid Hills
Single Gun Theory – Words Written Backwards
Talking Heads – The Big Country
Chris Isaak – The Lonely Ones
Shriekback – Black Light Trap
The Seeds – Pushin’ Too Hard

Post your own in comments…

Quote of the Day

June 1, 2006 / / Comments Off on Quote of the Day

Actually, yesterday…but who’s counting. Here’s Jim Henley, on the right-wing outrage at Google (for not having a special Google Doodle on Memorial Day):

Most of these people spent the 1990s urging others not to be so freaking sensitive about every little thing. Babies.

Mapping the American Taliban

June 1, 2006 / / 6 comments

Via Shakespeare’s Sister, here’s a great site that ranks the 50 states on the basis of reproductive and sexual rights, and support for families. It’s a great resource for anyone concerned about these issues.

Not surprisingly, South Dakota is number 50.

Fortunately, there’s something we can do about that. South Dakota Healthy Families spearheaded a successful petition drive to get an initiative repealing the abortion ban (passed by the SD legislature earlier this year) on the ballot. It looks like the initiative has a good chance of passing, and donations from outside South Dakota (on both sides) may well make the difference.

They also have a list of South Dakota legislators and how they voted on the abortion ban, in case anyone feels moved to donate to the good ones or to those challenging the bad ones.

If the South Dakota Taliban can be defeated, that would be a huge victory for the forces of good…and it would make the wingnuts in other states think twice about restricting abortion rights.

[Cross-posted at If I Ran the Zoo]

Hello There

June 1, 2006 / / 2 comments

Many thanks to Deborah for the kind introduction, and for her gracious invitation to post here in her absence. I did promise not to rail against vodka martinis or argue that David Niven was the best Bond (I guess I can always do that at my own place), but otherwise I pretty much have free rein.

It’s a little intimidating writing for a new audience. I don’t know all that much about Wicca, and I know next to nothing about Bond (or so Deborah tells me), so I’m afraid two out of the three constituencies here are likely to be disappointed. I will, nevertheless, try to keep you all entertained in the meantime. I have no idea what people want to read; but then, when I stop to think about it, I realize this is true of my own blog as well. So I’ll just post stuff and hope y’all like it. And, um, see how that works.

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