Posts from 2005

  Platinum Buddha 
  Originally uploaded by fredwilson.

We have seen gold Buddhas, bronze Buddhas, wood Buddhas, and even emerald (jade actually) Buddhas.

But this platinum Buddha in the White Wat is my favorite so far.

Organized religion and orthodoxy is not my thing but there is something really great about Buddhism. It seems to be devoid of orthodoxy and full of personal peace and tranquility.

Alan Kay is responsible for possibly my favorite line about technology, startups, etc:

"look, the best way to predict the future is to invent it"

With that in mind, I am going to refrain from posting my own top 10 predictions for 2006 but instead I am going to reblog the predictions for 2006 that I most want to make happen or see happen in 2006.

So I started with the delicious predictions tag and then I ran the popular algorithm.

I went through all of those links and tagged the ones I liked with predictions and here is my list (in no particular order), which I will keep adding to until year end.

My goal is to blog each day between now and the New Year a prediction made by someone else that I want to make happen or see happen in 2006.

I will start blogging the predictions later today.

Kent has a nice blog related Christmas wish list up and I was easily able to give him one of his wishes.

A lot of the records on my top 10 are bands/artists that I discovered for the first time this year.

Sigur Ros is on that list.  I love this band, their music, and this record, Takk.

My family calls them the Icelandic people.  That they are.  But they are so much more.

I have no idea what they are singing but it doesn’t matter a bit to me.  The music is so wonderful, intense, soaring, and powerful.

I have started to go back and listen to their older records and enjoy them too, but there is something about this one, Takk, that really gets me.  Two songs in particular, Hoppipolla and Saeglopur, are in heavy rotation on my iPod.  But the entire record is great and I am so glad I found this band this year.  I have Raj Bala to thank for that.

I am working my way through the Gotham Gal’s top books of 2005.

I started with A Million Little Pieces by James Frey.

It’s a book about addiction and recovery and its a gripping tale.

I can’t put it down.

Wouldn’t it be nice if Saddam Hussein’s claims that he’s been tortured by the US were laughable?

Wouldn’t it be nice if the Patriot Act was a piece of legislation that a solid majority of the Senate and the america public could support?

Wouldn’t it be nice if our government didn’t completely ignore the law and years of precedent before illegally spying on its own citizens?

Wouldn’t it be nice if we had a President who cared what the rest of the world thinks of us?

It sure would.

  Rice Paddies 
  Originally uploaded by fredwilson.

You know you are in Asia when everywhere you look you see rice paddies.

I think they are as beautiful as vineyards.

Both have a wonderful structure and pattern to them.

There are a few true geniuses in the popular music business.

But Mark Oliver Everett (aka E) is surely one of them.

E is the Eels, there really isn’t a band per se.  When we went to see him in concert this year (for the first time) it seemed like he played every instrument on the stage at one point.

His record this year, Blinking Lights and and Other Revelations, is a revelation.  It’s an intensely personal and at times somber effort.  But it’s got its share of uptempo numbers and holds together surprisingly well for a double album.

It would be higher up on my list if it weren’t such a committment of time and energy to listen to.

  The Golden Triangle 
  Originally uploaded by fredwilson.

this is the Mekong River with Laos on the right and Myanmar (formerly Burma) on the left.  The shot was taken from Thailand.

It’s a very interesting part of the world. With China and India not far away.