themanwho's New Writeupshttp://everything2.com/?node=New%20Writeups%20Atom%20Feed&foruser=themanwho2008-07-02T18:01:11ZA comparison of personal freedoms and liberties in developed nations (poetry)http://m.everything2.com/user/themanwho/writeups/A+comparison+of+personal+freedoms+and+liberties+in+developed+nationsthemanwhohttp://m.everything2.com/user/themanwho2008-07-02T18:01:11Z2008-07-02T18:01:11Z<p>Insert here a long winded self-defined set of "<a href="/title/freedom">freedom</a>s" and "liberties" which happen to match what my <a href="/title/european+socialist+model">culture</a> will have me believe is important.
<h2><a href="/title/Guantanamo+Bay">Conclusion</a></h2>
<p>When you look at real things that matter, the US is the developed nation with the most overtly expressed racism, homophobia and bigotry. The US has the worst level of education. The US has the most people who are not covered by a satisfactory health insurance.
<p>The US is a place where organised religion is slowly triumphing over science and where individual people are finding it increasingly difficult to have a say in how they are governed.
<p>Next time you feel like telling us how great the US is, please can it. You are only exposing your ignorance of the outside world.
<p><a href="/title/No+seriously%2521">Thank you</a>
<p>I would like to politely remind the alert reader that not everyone thinks that the US is the pinnacle of democracy and human effort.<!-- close unclosed tag --></p><!-- close unclosed tag --></p><!-- close unclosed tag --></p><!-- close unclosed tag --></p><!-- close unclosed tag --></p><!-- close unclosed tag --></p>God on learning to play music (essay)http://m.everything2.com/user/themanwho/writeups/God+on+learning+to+play+musicthemanwhohttp://m.everything2.com/user/themanwho2007-12-12T13:15:37Z2007-12-12T13:15:37Z<p align="center"><i>Just relax and blow</i> -- <a href="/title/Hariprasad+Chaurasia">Hariprasad Chaurasia</a></p>
Some distilled <a href="/title/gleaned+from+two+years+of+teaching+myself+to+play+the+flute">wisdom</a> on learning to play a musical instrument<a href="/title/you%2527re+needing+my+wisdoms+bad">.</a>
<ul>
<li>Play fifteen minutes every day rather than three hours once a week.</li>
<li>Don't spend more than five consecutive minutes on something that annoys, bores or frustrates you.</li>
<li>There is too much beautiful music to waste time on pieces you don't like.</li>
<li>Play with other people. Different instruments, different backgrounds, different tastes, different habits.</li>
<li>Spend lots and lots (and lots) of time listening carefully to a wide variety of music. Look for structure, harmony, variation, interpretation, rhythm, ornementation, etc.</li>
<li>Record yourself regularly. Good for perspective and for listening to three months later to realise how much you've <a href="/title/As+you+improve%252C+the+standard+by+which+you+judge+yourself+will+go+up">improved</a>.</li>
<li>The<!-- close unclosed tag --></li><!-- close unclosed tag --></ul>…November 14, 2007 (review)http://m.everything2.com/user/themanwho/writeups/November+14%252C+2007themanwhohttp://m.everything2.com/user/themanwho2007-11-14T19:21:04Z2007-11-14T19:21:04Z<p>Hi there. I haven't posted in what? A year now? I was attracted to e2 because I wanted the gratification of having all these intelligent people say wonderful things about my writing. I had my first few writeups deleted but persevered; and it payed off. I'm somewhere near the top of the honor roll and at one point, yes, I wanted to game the honor roll. But then I grew up and <a href="/title/put+away+childish+things">put away childish things</a>.</p>
<p>Why I'm no longer here? Well I'm sorry, but the noding populace is just this <a href="/title/Beeblebrox%253F+he%2527s+just+this+guy+you+know">bunch of people</a>. Collectively more able to form grammatically correct sentences than your average pool of typing monkeys and with some exceptionnally gifted individuals but quite frankly? The upvotes don't mean anything to me any longer. The C!s? Some of my very favourite writers have enjoyed and C!d my work - that makes me very happy - but on the other hand, I know they like what I do. And pretty much anything coherent gets a C! these days...</p>
<p>An other reason I'm not here<!-- close unclosed tag --></p>…March 5, 2007 (idea)http://m.everything2.com/user/themanwho/writeups/March+5%252C+2007themanwhohttp://m.everything2.com/user/themanwho2007-03-05T16:08:36Z2007-03-05T16:08:36Z<h3>Tip for <a href="/title/authors+of+HTML+documents">visitors to the Interwebs</a></h3>
<p>If you are a typical e2 author, it is very likely that you like to twiddle your scratchpad html until your writeup looks just perfect on your screen. This, in the case of several authors, includes putting <blockquote> and <ol> tags in until the gutter is just the right width.</p>
<p>Lemme tell ya something. You, as an author of an <a href="/title/e2+html">html</a> document on a public website, have almost no control over what the end user will see. Maybe your reader is blind, maybe your reader is using a palmtop or a mobile phone. Maybe your reader isn't using their browser in full screen mode because it's easier to read text that isn't too wide. Maybe your reader likes to have a larger font.</p>
<p>Maybe your reader is me.</p>
<p>I have a <a href="/title/user+stylesheet">user stylesheet</a> in my notelet, which puts a margin around paragraphs and puts a huge margin around blockquotes - because I like blockquotes that stand out. The<!-- close unclosed tag --></p>…Breton dancing (thing)http://m.everything2.com/user/themanwho/writeups/Breton+dancingthemanwhohttp://m.everything2.com/user/themanwho2005-12-21T16:23:04Z2005-12-21T16:23:04Z<h3>Breton dancing</h3>
<p><i>I know this bloke who has recently taken up Breton dancing called themanwho. He thinks it's really fun and has granted me an interview. For our readers who don't know, there is this small piece of land in the top left corner of France called <a href="/title/Brittany">Brittany</a>. It still has a fairly strong celtic culture, with its own particular music, <a href="/title/Breton">language</a> and dances. Unlike many other parts of the western world, where folk dancing is something of an anachronistic hobby, in Brittany, these dances are still very much a living tradition.</i></p>
<p><i>I catch up with themanwho at a one of the <a href="/title/fest+noz">fest noz</a> ("night party") which are organised (or sometimes just happen) on a daily basis in Brittany, particularly during the summer and can be found more irregularly across the world, to the great pleasure of expat and adoptive Bretons. The view from afar is pretty amazing: a long line of people holding arms is progressing, caterpillar-like (but sideways) around the dance-floor. On closer<!-- close unclosed tag --></i><!-- close unclosed tag --></p>…Circassian Circle (thing)http://m.everything2.com/user/themanwho/writeups/Circassian+Circlethemanwhohttp://m.everything2.com/user/themanwho2005-12-14T18:59:14Z2005-12-14T18:59:14Z<p>
The Circassian Circle is a <a href="/title/swap+partners+after+each+figure">mixer</a> type of collective <a href="/title/folk+dance">folk dance</a>. It is commonly found in folk balls in <a href="/title/France">France</a>, but also seems to be found around the world where it is danced in similar fashion. This dance stands out because France has a number of dances which are particular to the region from which they come. The Circassian Circle is one of the few mixer dances that everyone will know - and which is so easy anyone can figure it out with no explanation.
</p><p>
The dance seems to have originated in <a href="/title/England">England</a> (and not <a href="/title/Circassia">Circassia</a> as one might have thought) during the 19th century, where what is now called "Circassian Circle" was only the second part of the original dance. It came to France in the 1960s and presumably reached other parts of the world at a similar time.</p>
<h3>Ingredients</h3>
<ul>
<li>An even number of dancers - at least 10 would be ok, but somewhere between 20 and 40 would be better</li>
<li>Music - most tunes for this are in 6/8, but any music<!-- close unclosed tag --></li><!-- close unclosed tag --></ul>…