17 February, 2009

The good folks at the Creative Freedom Foundation have really got something going with the “Internet Blackout” to protest against the “guilt upon accusation” that is inherent in our revised Copyright Act. It’s also why I’m running a black theme (which I’m kinda liking to be honest). New Zealand has a thriving artist community and while I think the majority of us appreciate copyright is valuable removing people’s internet access based on an accusation is not an appropriate way of protecting copyright. That and if we remove internet access those people can no longer see my art (and I use the term loosely) which is all web based. Let’s try and get this country back on track and acting a little more rationally.

Speaking of rational action, my world at the moment is trying to deal with the irrational behaviour around me, specifically in education, and decide if it is a healthy environment for me to carry on in. Not an easy decision but fast becoming an important one.

My desktop now has a new sound card to replace the onboard chip I managed to blow up by grounding it incorrectly. Finding hardware that works in Ubuntu is always a bit unnerving to those of us not blessed with the ability to speak with computers, especially in a world where everything is noted as working with “Windows XP and maybe Vista”. Luckily I got one that works with Linux drivers recently released and so far I have noise. It is very reminiscent of the day I got contact lenses to replace glasses. Colours were suddenly brighter, everything was richer and I stopped running into things … reminiscent I guess but not exactly the same maybe.

The garden is doing very well and with some recent effort starting to really come together. A few more years of this and we will be producing really well.