David Kreps Blog

Egypt March 07

28 03 07 - 23:57 - da5idk - default| No comments - § ¶ Share on Facebook

Authentication

This presentation is extremely good. It's Dick Hardts introduction to SXIP.org and the notion of Identity2.0 - absolutely fascinating and extremely well presented. Unfortunately it's not embeddable but worth the visit to identity20.com

10 03 07 - 18:46 - da5idk - default| No comments - § ¶ Share on Facebook

Pedal power

Here's a pretty thrilling video of a cyclist with a helmet-cam riding amidst a gang who seem to have little care for their or anyone else's safety through the streets of New York City. Quite a ride!

10 03 07 - 15:14 - da5idk - default| No comments - § ¶ Share on Facebook

Mystical experiences on the cheap...?

Here's a very interesting 1hr 20min video on the story of LSD in the 50s and 60s, with such characters as Ken Kesey, Timothy Leary, and others talking about the drug, and the time. Back in the day, between 1982 and 1984, aged 19-21, I read Leary's book "The Psychedelic Experience" and "Be Here Now" by one his colleagues who took the name Baba Ram Dass, and experimented with the drug myself on a handful of occasions. This programme does a good job of exploring all the issues, including giving airtime to Roger Scruton - contemporary and detractor of Leary's. I certainly don't regret my experiments, and I would say gained a good deal from them. The consensus of Hofman - who first synthesised the drug - and others, that the mystical qualities of the experience are best (indeed perhaps only) brought to the fore under controlled conditions, is something with which I would concur. 'Sacred teacher plants' and other substances and activities (like starvation) used by priests, shamans, and spiritual seekers the world over are always used under controlled conditions and with the oversight of trusted elders who can be relied upon to ensure the experience does not end in tears. It's a good documentary!

05 03 07 - 22:17 - da5idk - default| No comments - § ¶ Share on Facebook

Photomaps mash-up

Here's some fun - with Tripper Map you can see how my holiday snaps map onto google maps - nice mash-up!

Minimum screen resolution 1024x768

03 03 07 - 23:31 - da5idk - default| No comments - § ¶ Share on Facebook

MacBook Pro

So to bring us up to date I am proud to announce that I have acquired a MacBook Pro, and created this blog with it.

I used Apple Macs between 1988 and 1998 - yes I've been a bit of a geek for quite a while - see the archive page for websites I've made over the last decade or more - then went onto PCs in 1998, and have about three on the go at any one time at the moment, but since January 2007 I am now back on Macs as my main laptop and working environment and very happy about it!

03 03 07 - 22:29 - da5idk - default| No comments - § ¶ Share on Facebook

Auschwitz

Also in September 2006, I visited Krakow, Poland, for a conference, and took a day out to visit Auschwitz. This is something one simply has to do, once in one's life. My father's mother's family, the Bergmans, and her mother's family, the Dembitzers, all Polish, would all have been despatched at Belson or Dachau, long before Auschwitz was built to despatch the rest of European Jewry. But Auschwitz is certainly the largest, and most awesome of the camps, and a death camp where on one day at the peak of its operations 100,000 people perished.

03 03 07 - 17:19 - da5idk - default| No comments - § ¶ Share on Facebook

Carcassonne

In September, before the start of term, I took the opportunity for a short weekend break in Carcassonne, which is my favourite French town, staying with a friend of 20 years standing, Arabella Churchill, in the delightful villa she and her husband have bought and done up in a village nearby.

03 03 07 - 17:15 - da5idk - default| No comments - § ¶ Share on Facebook

Canada

In July/August I went to Canada, for a stay in Montreal, to attend the first World OutGames with the Manchester Lesbian and Gay Chorus. We also stopped off in Toronto and at the Niagara Falls before returning home.

03 03 07 - 17:07 - da5idk - default| No comments - § ¶ Share on Facebook

Scotland 2006

In June I headed off up to the Isles of Scotland again - this time going as far as Lewis, to visit the stones of Callanish.

03 03 07 - 17:01 - da5idk - default| No comments - § ¶ Share on Facebook

Athens

2006 was a year of many travels, beginning in March with a visit to Athens, where I took the opportunity to enjoy the acropolis and the musuems

03 03 07 - 16:59 - da5idk - default| No comments - § ¶ Share on Facebook

Housework

Returning from my little jaunt in the Isle's in Summer 2005, I went and bought a terraced house in Bury.
Below are a few photos of the process of renovation!

03 03 07 - 15:00 - da5idk - default| No comments - § ¶ Share on Facebook

Scotland 2005

Then there's just lots and lots of photos of holidays - anyone as interested as I am in stone circles will enjoy many of these, lol

03 03 07 - 14:56 - da5idk - default| No comments - § ¶ Share on Facebook

Cyborgs

After the theatre, came the Cyborgs... I spent a fair old time writing a PhD thesis about cyborgism, and you can find out a bit more about it in the cyborg section of this website, though it is only a preliminary website and doesn't include the thesis.

Meantime, though, if you're interested, here's a short movie of a powerpoint slideshow you can watch, to give a flavour of what it was all about.

03 03 07 - 14:47 - da5idk - default| No comments - § ¶ Share on Facebook

An historical perspective...

So here it is, another blog begun - I wonder if I'll keep it going longer than the last one?! Well, to get things started, here's a slideshow of my past as an actor, from 1969-1994. You can get more detail on all this from the theatre section of this website.

03 03 07 - 14:46 - da5idk - default| No comments - § ¶ Share on Facebook