Boing Boing - Motherlode of century-old postcards

Thanks to Boing Boing, here's a great link to Motherlode of century-old postcards. Opened window to the early XXth century. Some hours in the attic of humanity. Sentimental reasons led me to Veracruz...

Funny they don't have any picture of old France! A quick search pointed me to this site.

Bicycles

Re-used the same service of freecycle.org, looking this time for a trunk bike rack to increase the range of the trails I can go biking on. Looks like this was the right choice as I could very well get a rack very soon. I reshaped my old Schwinn as I need to go back to work tomorrow after 2 months working in-house. I was surprised by the smoothness of this bike, despite the weight and the spider webs. Changed the saddle with the one I kept from my Specialized. I ride the neighbourhood whenever I can! The simple activity of basic maintenance is a pleasure. Gets me into the mood of the very present time, the pleasure of the time well spent, the concentration on little things. The goals matter less than the space and time in between!....

I had the same thought while brooming the balcony yesterday, quiet sweeping, getting things done, simply. I feel I slowly disconnect from the race for money and things. Little things matter!

Changing the world one gift at a time.

I gave a try to freecycle.org this week. In fact I was looking for a used baby carrier for my second boy - did not want to buy one as the greatest are much expensive - and I was also looking for a replacement to my Nokia cell phone, lost yesterday while biking to the library: it's for company use, and the company in question doesn't want to replace it. So I went to use freecycle.org (Palo Alto branch) to see if I could get something, at least an idea of the service. Guess what? IT WORKED! In a very short time (a bunch of hours) I got nice replies and have to pick up both items tomorrow. They sound like being in mint condition, and both of good quality: Bjorn for the carrier, Sony for the phone!

I have been so surprised and pleased by these already good news, that I suddenly put my old Apple iMac (beautiful lime model) at the disposal of whoever would pick it up and fix it today - and it was GONE in one hour! Instead of sending things straight to the trash this website gives a beautiful alternative to give and take in your very community!

Here's the description from their website:

The worldwide (!) Freecycle Network is made up of many individual groups across the globe. It's a grassroots movement of people who are giving (& getting) stuff for free in their own towns. Each local group is run by a local volunteer moderator (them's good people). Membership is free. To sign up, find your city by clicking on the region on the right. It will generate a automatic e-mail which, when sent, will sign you up for your local group and send you an response with instructions on how it works. Or, go directly to the webpage for your city's group by clicking on your city's link on the left. Can't find your city? It takes about ten minutes to start your own (click on "Start your own" for instructions). Have fun and keep on Freecyclin'!

I got the items at the best I could expect! I have been really amazed about PEOPLE on this one! Recycling is green, makes so much sense in this society of abundance - it's not ALL about money after all.

Midlife crisis!

This comic is where I am now - eh no, seriously....

Why Do We Blog?

WOLves: Why Do We Blog? is an interesting and crucial post about the sport of blogging. This activity endorsed by individuals like me, who write down their thoughts on almost a daily basis, or simply give parrot content - links to other contents as called in the post - this activity is great. I didn't raise the question at this point, so here it is: why do I blog?

Well, I don't have a serious plan about it. To make it straight, I use it right now because it's free, fun, technically interesting, and because it can carry many references to activities, things and events that matter to me. A lot of what I do can be logged, mainly as text, and my blog can also be used to promote my work. It's no loss, and can't be a failure as it doesn't have a goal to reach. But hopefully it will bring things to light and carry interest. Please post comments whenever you visit, this will bring orientation and traction to this web place. Thank you.

The work of gapingvoid and many other readings inspired me this quick little drawing. Like in mountain biking, the fluidity in the effort is important, the way through creation needs to know no block. The rule of the 80% crap / 20% good work needs to be well acknowledged so we can create free, shameless and abundant.  

Post on creativity

gapingvoid had a great post about how to be creative.... Very inspirational. Besides, this guy's blog is also parsed with little cartoons, full of lucidity. Great!!

Finished "Maus", excellent comics book from Art Spiegelman that received a Pulitzer Prize more than 15 years ago.  

Powder Keg

This is the black cat's blog. Blogging is something I have somehow been doing since years, without knowing, through homemade posts on the black cat dot org website, through a little MySQL/php rudimentary tool! I am I think nothing of a writer, and English isn't my mother's tongue - but hey we will see! But since I discovered that this web was made of concrete threads and discovered myself reading avidly from perfect strangers I started realizing that this could be a wonderful way for me to express myself and reflect on me, my work, and on all things....

Long Live The Blac Cat & its Blog!!!!