http://www.phydeau.org Conceptual Fluid Thu, 20 Nov 2008 00:29:13 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en A Very Good Day for Turtles is a fantastic children's story, which is now available for purchase from Lulu. Wondering why turtles don't hurry anymore? Mr. Clark's poetic fable of a few precocious turtles offers an answer. The illustrations, a Gomez/McLaughlin collaboration, enhance the story with their imaginative light and ... http://www.phydeau.org/a-very-good-day-for-turtles/ "Ugly! Eyesore! How could people think it was a good idea?" A giant slab of concrete in the middle of the outer edge of the park. For shame, city! This was no sculpture, I thought. [caption id="attachment_198" align="alignleft" width="160" caption="Monument between Parc La Fontaine and Sherbrooke"][/caption] Why preserve and move the edge ... http://www.phydeau.org/aesthetic-transformation/ I got something the other day. After a glass of x knows what and four men had to haul the logs out of the corner, we all might say we got something— But really, it was I, I got it. It started when the king fell over. "No way to play chess" I said, referring mostly to myself. But I ... http://www.phydeau.org/politicians-lament/ Starting this project, I had no idea where it would go. Yet on days like today, I joke that I'm almost there. No doubt I'll make it, once almost there won't be. Happy birthday, me. Share This http://www.phydeau.org/thirty-four-twenty-threes/ 1. Caught in a substance imperceptible to humans, like a spider-spun web (as their web substance certainly must be to insects). We go about our lives. One day Bill walks into the substance (the web) scarcely perceiving it. Months pass and he notices his struggle with increased workplace stress. It's ... http://www.phydeau.org/five-propositions-about-death/ Starting off in the distance, where the gelatinous ocean rose in spots and dipped in others, waves rolled. Each following another as it finally dispersed itself into the fine sandy shore. One wave followed another but each grew again in the same place. It was impossible to follow one and ... http://www.phydeau.org/interpersonal-telescopic/ Midnight lost its magic. The parties decease without happiness just Boredom. A skinny, unwashed boy yells at the wrong windows. He'd serenade her if he could find her. Doesn't matter that he can't since any other window'll do Share This http://www.phydeau.org/midnight-lost-its-magic-1/ I am not an expert at the following ten items. I am unlikely to become an expert at these because I bear no desire for expertise at these, much less much else. Slavery without adhesive Collecting litres of mud Pirate ideas Prognosticating the colours of life or the wailing songs thereof Forgetting all the unwanted premonitions Ice ... http://www.phydeau.org/inexpertise/ Ever thought about a typewriter? The kind of thinking where you separate it all out, making it type writer. Then go on with type, just on its own. Type, type is what you see right here, in front of you. It's a type of type too. Times, probably. Times type. ... http://www.phydeau.org/type-write/ In the scheme of things, few people have the interest (or is it patience?) to delve deeply into the concept of "intellectual property" (IP). I think that is why IP regulation is among the most under-considered issues in public political discourse today. It's difficult, in the snap of a soundbite, ... http://www.phydeau.org/motivating-anti-ip-activism-in-canada/ Two fellows argued near a phone. One of them, greying hair, a turpentine diluted blue cardigan, gestured with both hands. The other rolled his eyes up and tilted his head sideways. He made fleeting eye contact and though not the elder, he was the taller. They spoke urgently, probably not ... http://www.phydeau.org/two-fellows-disagreeing-over-reconciliation/ 1) Knock (together) on the side of a fishtank--they won't mind, even at 2 AM 2) Puddles, immersive treatments to all the world's puddles 3) Treat it to a bedtime story 4) Show the crook of your shoulder to a good friend and the slipper; then they'll have something in common 5) Lie down ... http://www.phydeau.org/fourteen-things-to-do-with-a-drunken-slipper/ He went around the side of the house and climbed over a broken fence. Climbing it was easy, the fence gave way, giving him way, and soon he'd stepped through enough waist-deep shrubs and weeds to gather their briars, hooks, and brown hitch-hiking bits from his pants for a bouquet ... http://www.phydeau.org/donned-in-details/ "I used to follow the odd jobs truck down the street when I'd see it. My friends did too, we all went together. We'd run, skate, or bicycle as fast as we could to keep up. Usually it would pass us easily but we could see it far enough ahead ... http://www.phydeau.org/like-a-laying-on-of-hands/ I keep a small, spiral-bound notepad in my left back pocket. No, I've kept many. I've done this for years. Looking back, I'm not always sure what I've written or why, but I save them. A collection of a few of the pages: 23 July 1998 - First words with ... http://www.phydeau.org/some-history-from-the-back-pocket/ On the table top, and in the barely dark, dry and not imposing any urgency. I looked at marbles today. Swirling lake reflections of spirals, cat eyes, and occasional small bubbles. A white background of no consequence, pushing through the imperfect glass. One marble chipped here or there. You touch such ... http://www.phydeau.org/all-possible-objects/ Four sets of photos, sketches, and text accomplished in four different Montreal parks (fifteen minutes each). First day of Spring. Share This http://www.phydeau.org/parks-before-spring-notebooks/ On the night before, I slept very little to ensure I’d sleep the next night. That next night held a flight--an entire night mixed up with invisible hands batting our poor vessel about the sky. Piano sound carries itself winking uponaround three flights of interwoven logs: Trees petrified in ... http://www.phydeau.org/meditation-passage-climbing-good-hour/ When he was a boy, he'd accompany one parent or another to banks, convenience stores, hardware stores, places queueing people to exchange money for whatever it was worth. He'd stand by the counter waiting to be noticed. Sensible, he waited in line, not interrupting, rocking from heel to toe to ... http://www.phydeau.org/eye-to-eye/ The Phy-d'eau wiki is resurrected as the Idea Toy Wiki. A wiki devoted to creating, collecting, publishing, taxonomizing, and discussing thinking organisms as well as their relatives: thought experiments, koans, tantalizing paradoxes, unsolvable logic mechanisms, etc. The goal is to develop a collection of work written just to provoke thinking ... http://www.phydeau.org/collecting-thought-experiments-koans-etc/ A cold polished stone lolls on my tongue. I curl the edges, rolling the stone to the center cradling it in a sway of undulating taste buds. My tongue spoons this sip of scotch, rolling it like a flaming dollop of viscous honey, down my throat-- yellow and round an invisible note of buoyant Bosch.Share This http://www.phydeau.org/cheering-absurd-funnel-of-warm-resonance/ One morning, driving along the river, outside my neighbourhood, I witnessed the rapid welcome of a brilliant, melancholy, antique cloud. It descended at an angle from the unlimited above, with its measure of a western direction. I wanted to stop. At 7:00 in the morning with no temperature, few people ... http://www.phydeau.org/breath-wanders-wonder-visits/ My wife is a professional at human emotions. Humans believe that which other humans tell them. James quoted Smith, saying a door in the hall lost its hinge pin. Smith agreed with himself while historically throwing a hinge to roving garbage collectors. If streets roam, their participants stray. 1906 infamously smoulders on the pages of ... http://www.phydeau.org/observation-linkages-1/