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2 Dead Pens and a Stub
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- Written by: Rod Boyle
- Category: Creative
- Hits: 1317
It's proof that I've been working, finally, these past couple of months not entirely squandered, projects come along just never according to schedule.
I'm obsessed with art supplies, materials to create, I acquire easily 100 times what I need, this project, a couple of dozen notebooks, easily, 20 pencils, 3 dozen pens.
One pens' already given out.
Now, again, 2 pens failing and a 2 inch stub of a pencil, I'm pleased, these things are measurable, I'm no longer a collector, consumer, I'm a creator.
Pages litter the table, I've been condensing, redrawing in finished copy, rewriting, notes, 100 stray sheets and scraps of paper, an additional semi-organized 2 notebooks, things are coming along, not to schedule, but at least they're on their way...
The drawing, it improves, never good but better, always a little bit better, and I'm beginning to relax and enjoy it more. Take more chances. Find the joy in just copying something well done and hope the hard lessons learned by that artist will, by Osmosis or dull repetition, be learned by me, and, slowly slowly they are. Intervals of despair are ever-more frequently broken my minor triumphs.
This is the 99% perspiration.
The Lost Dutch Colony of Australia
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- Written by: Rod Boyle
- Category: Ideas & Questions
- Hits: 1700
I remember being very curious about this upon hearing of it from the "Bush Tucker Man" programs of Australia. He was both informed and persuasive. And so, my imagination was reignited by the Futility Closet Podcast "The Wild White Man" I thought I'd revisit the notion, and see if anything had been resolved. It seems - to an extent - that it has, bu the controversy is ongoing. I'll let you do your own research and make up your own mind.
Links:
- The Original Article that Raised the Question
- Prospect of Dutch Settlement Pre Fleet Raised
- The Bush-Tucker Man's Theory
- Modern DNA Testing Results
So, some questions answered, some remain, but curiosity feeds the mind...
A Living Wage
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- Written by: Rod Boyle
- Category: Link of the day
- Hits: 1441
A well written and well informed article on the effects of a living minimum wage, as applied in Australia.
In the hospitality industry - front of house wages are largely subsidized by tips, and I for one prefer that model to others - it gives the customer a leeway and ability to contribute to the situation and keeps servers/bartenders actively interested in the quality of service. But for back of house positions, fast food, retail, this makes a lot of sense. And I remember so many customers at the old restaurant would argue against it.
I especially like the quote:
The principle that employees must be paid a "living wage" dates back to a 1907 decision of the Commonwealth Court of Conciliation and Arbitration, which stated that if an employer was unable to pay a living wage, it was not entitled to operate a business. A living wage was defined in the decision as being sufficient to permit an unskilled worker, a dependent spouse and three dependent children to live in "frugal comfort."
It makes sense. But in Alberta, wow, what a moral panic...
Charlie Kaufman
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- Written by: Rod Boyle
- Category: Film
- Hits: 1382
Having rewatched "Being John Malklovich" - and, again, amazed, laughing, both outrageous and fresh - still, 20 years later. Excellent. And followed it with "Adaptation" - which I remembered only slightly, I still didn't enjoy it, appreciation would be more the word, yet a brighter film than most by a long-shot. The scenes where Charlie Kaufman is trying to write but the internal monologue keeps intruding, the screenwriters seminar, absolutely hilarious...and you can see how this attention to detail, the visual games, are leading him towards "Synecdoche, New York".
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