fitful wanderings from the web

 • Path to Freedom is a grassroots, family operated, original urban homestead located in the midst of Pasadena, CA.
   Surrounded by urban sprawl and just a short distance from a freeway, the Dervaes Family have steadily worked at transforming this ordinary city lot into an organic and sustainable micro-farm.
   The website documents the many steps the Dervaeses have taken and hopes to inspire fellow travelers on their own life-changing journey. They also maintain a regular weblog documenting how their efforts plays out.
 • OtherStream is what got me focused about blogging. I had been keeping what I called an "online journal" ever since the days of Prodigy dial-up service. David's acerbic wit, together with his keen observations about the "gay community", and a refreshing sense of good graphic design, had me hooked. His site was then called Planet SOMA; I've followed his wanderings of-and-on, ever since.
 • We make money, not art is a blog team that writes about the intersection between art, design and technology; and about the way artists, hackers and interaction designers (mis)use technology.
   The Make Money writers (there are three full timers) cover everything from conferences to international biennials, to workshops for Elvis Impersonators where "...the workshop aimed to address questions concerning the legal definition of impersonation and authenticity."
 • The Abandoned Missile Base VR Tour. One of the first "urban Spelunking" sites I ever came across, and particularly well designed.
   Say the site authors: "This presentation will take you on a full tour of a decommissioned, abandoned underground missile complex. The site was opened many years ago by explorers and vandals, and in fact the technology therein was nearly obsolete by the time the bases were completed in 1963, so there's little "secret" about it beyond the location of these sites, which we will not reveal here."
 • A boon to the psycho-pharmacology industry? British proto-journalist Elvin F. Verdad reports that Mental Illness can now be diagnosed in unborn children!
   Through controversial procedures, Dr. Ordlin Beanhauser (UK) and Dr. Howard Mindsettler (US) are able to, they claim, determine mental disorders based on a fetus' movement patterns, general discomfort caused to the mother, and a baby's reaction to Barry Manilow music and recordings of Ben Stein droning on endlessly about nothing.
 • Future Scanner. This site scans the internet for all kinds of conjectures and prognostications about the future, and what we might expect to see. Sometimes that means linking to a TED video about the Bernoulli theorem E(u|p,X) = Σx∈ p(x)u(x), other times, articles like what bathrooms will look like in the future. A good place to stay productively busy while wasting time online while at work.

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IMAGE CREDITS TO: 1- local scene; a work of my own; 2- Elvis Was Here, 2008, Photograph by Thierry Bal published on We Make Money, Not Art; 3- Elvin Verdad's FaceBook Profile picture.