#blogpostfriday - This fine Friday I am remembering the call to go beyond a 140 character post.  What triggered this recollection, I’m not sure–but I’m glad it’s here. 

The sun has just come out.  Greens dominate out the window here.  The blue is showing through the tops of the trees up the hill.  There’s a tranquility, a source of wonder.  A gentle breeze caresses the trees, butterflies flutter carelessly.  It is a picture to behold.  The recently cut grass (if you want to call it grass–it’s more clover and assorted weeds) stands, a pleasant still carpet.  A very handsome, tidy area.  The view is great from here, the music/writing room.  Deep breath and thanks.

The weekend in all its recreational glory.  Ahh, relief, let the stress roll off.  It is most welcome.  I’ll get some work done, make calls, visits.  We’ve got exercise machines in the house, so it is tempting to keep the doors shut and get workouts done here.  The house is so darned comfortable, it’s sometimes hard to get out anywhere.  And there is the tendency to remain sedentary.  Gotta fix that one…

What a challenge to get a grounding in this ever-changing, ever-growing information age.  I vascillate between computerized and manual systems.  A constant is that handwriting cannot go away.  There’s an ancient connection that must remain in me.  The technology is nanofast, efficient, superior in many respects, yes.  However, this connection is increasingly more important–it’s core identity, uniqueness.  It must stay, it must always be a part of my life.

The grounding comes from calm, perpetuates calm.  Managing self-talk, managing the noise, it’s a full time job, especially in this technomatrix.  The power to turn off the noise is invaluable.  There’s power, no pun intended, in finding that switch and knowing how to use it.  In my mind’s eye I analyze the switch, wondering how difficult it is to use, wondering how often to use it, instead of just flipping the damned thing!

A late breakfast with Lori.  Standard fare, GoLean Crunch, All Bran, skim milk.  We introduced Mom to GoLean, and now she can’t get enough of it.  It’s high-fiber, multi-grain, crunchy perfection.  It’s filling too.

I saw Lori gaze down at a magazine, saw her chuckle a bit.  A drawing on the cover of the University of Virginia alumni magazine.  A view of a campus lawn, with a young student wipping a frisbee at a professor, a squirrel on the head of another young student, all sorts of humorous little scenarios in the busy scene.  Lots of personality.  The headline was “Drawing on Cartoons”.  Nice pun.

A short while later, she chuckled and said “Exposure to cuteness increases fine motor skills”.  I thought she was putting me on.  Nope.  She was reading an actual study asserting this.  It was one of the articles in the magazine.  Subjects who had exposure to cute pictures of puppies and kittens performed better in the game Operation versus a group of people exposed to adult dogs and cats.

Just what I need, and excuse for more cuteness in this house. :0

Bring on the weekend, bring on the recreation!

My RSS through Google Reader is jam-packed with items, always showing 1000+ to read.  Evelyn Wood, where are you now?

#blogpostfriday:  I didn’t put the reminder on my calendar yet–but I should not need to, this tradition should be instilled, automatic.  As Dave Winer mentioned, instead of following folks via #followfriday, follow your own thoughts and get them down.  That’s precisely what I’m trying to do here.  We call all of this interactive, these innumerable posts, pages, videos, slideshows, ads, you name it.  But maybe it’s not.  Maybe it’s really a one way situation, with a click or a chuckle here and there.  Are we responding or creating in any way really?  This is a good chance to put some thought into it and get the juices flowing.

I’m sitting back here right now perplexed.  Wondering what is real anymore.  In this world of cyberwhatever, we don’t even know who is behind what post.  Possibly we know who’s providing our own posts!  I have not a ghost blogger, yet.  No ghost blogger, twitterer, myspacer, anything.  When you have one, does that mean you’ve arrived, or that you’re too lazy?

I see the WordPress word count at the bottom left.  Curious when it actually increases.  Seems to do so as I type.  At 200 now, approximately.   But then again, I’m not so sure.  I’ll look at the code.  Be right back.  Looks like it happens during saves, auto or manual.  Thought it might have been some ajax deal.  It’s not quantity, it’s quality.  That’s all you’re going to get here.

As my trusty old Honda Civic was being repaired the other day (ouch, I didn’t have that kind of money), news of Senator Kennedy came on.  Excerpts of his speeches were reviewed.  The man was larger than life.  As part of this mythical clan, one that tragedy often visited, he survived, not letting himself be deterred.  The figure was huge–something like 6500 pieces of legislation had been put into place with his involvement.  The power of his words and commitment to everyday Americans will resonate for many years.  I saw just recently that an official twitter account for the Kennedy family was created–@kennedynews.  Yes, there is mention of the vigil, of an official site, tedkennedy.org.  What a loss, what a pivotal figure in our history.

Here was a figure who was involved in the moving forward of civil rights, a figure who was involved in the marches; he passed the torch to Barack Obama, offered his endorsement, his support.  Backing him in healthcare reform efforts.  How far the nation has come, how the world has come, since those times.  Who’d have thought our nation would have an African American leader.  It says so much for our country–and Senator Kennedy was there to see this, the movement, this success.

In the healthcare debate, and beyond, in politics, I’m clueless as to how to keep track of all of the rhetoric, clueless as to who to trust.  One of the most disturbing discoveries in most recent looks at C-SPAN was that legislators were voting on items they had not even had the chance to read.  There’s not much American about that, but it’s rampant.  Even if a representative is fully trusted, how the hell can we have any confidence in a system which requires votes under these circumstances?  Who the heck knows.

The world will keep doing its thing.  I guess.

Yes, it was a terrific day here in Nashville.  I made solid progress on client tasks and took time to enjoy this magnificent weather.  There is much gratitude here.  Breathing, loving, and smiling.

First U.S. Rehab Center for
Internet Addiction
Opens Its Doors.

Excellent post and the video that inspired it.  How much time have you spent on the internet?  Probably too much.  See the list of 10 signs of addiction–you might be surprised at how many you can answer yes to.

The young man featured in the CNN video on the Mashable page was pretty matter-of-fact about his issue.  It was a somber sight though, this young man with such talent–it appears that he’s getting back to what he loved in “real life”.

It reminds me that there’s other important stuff off of this grid.  Much of my work is on computer and on line, so it’s difficult to flat out break away sometimes.  All the more harder to do so anyway.  Hard or not, it’s necessary.  At issue is balance.  You do the work here that’s needed.  The internet has sucked so much attention away from television and more traditional media outlets, but big media’s getting into the fray to provide more content here.  So it’s more tempting to stick around and find the gossip, the tv shows, the sensationalism.

Recovery starts when you know you need it.  Sometimes others let you know.  Regardless of how you found out, take the path.  Prioritize and establish–or re-establish–that balance.

UberBeyond Information Overload

OMG, I need filters and need ‘em fast, at least if any attention will be paid to real time web or anything similar.  And tell me it’s going to get any slower or more manageable from here on out.

Organization is crucial.  It starts with deep breaths, quiet, and patience.  Understanding too.  Just a few questions occurring:

• What are you looking for?
• What to buy?
• How to enhance skills?
• Looking for a job?  Tips on how to get them?
• Where do you get the information?
• Who do you trust to tell you any of this?
• Who are reliable sources?
• What are those sources’ motivations?

I am going to drown without a level of trust, a real idea of what actionability is, a time limit, a goal.  Set that goal, get in, get out, if ya can…. everyone in the world is clamoring for attention, has a story to tell, has a product to sell; the noise is UberBeyond Info Overload, at least in terms of this dynamic, real time paradigm.

Step Away From The Internet.

Real time web blowing my mind.  I wonder what the world will be like after this.  It’s already after this, and another million pages and entries and blog posts and tweets and retweets have been created.  I’m not offering hard numbers here, just a personal reaction as a tail end baby boomer who was born way before the information age barely kicked in (or at least the mainstreaming of it).

We are getting it all as it happens–but what are we getting?  Once again, and most importantly, we have to look at a trust issue.  In what comes across our radar, our content, interest, what do we act upon?  Do we consider our sources?  How and where do we filter the data?  Can we really call it information yet?  Assertions are made, but for the most part, they’re fields in RSS streams.  The have not been assessed, we don’t know their true value yet.  Caveat emptor and good luck sorting through it.

Faith

Oh hoping to write a few words.  Hoping to say something useful and meaningful for somebody.  Negativity blossoming for some, for those other than me.  Can I believe these words?  Can I take them to the faith bank?

Who has fallen on hard times? Have hard times fallen on you?  What could these hard times lead to?  Tougher people.  Survivors.  People getting back to what is more meaningful.  Technological dependence and focus and obsession?  Alcohol?  Food?  Tobacco?  Porn?  Is there creativity?  Who feels lost in this world, lost in their own?

Emotional combinations, collisions.  Clicking like cue and eight balls on green felt, cigarrette burns scarring the pastoral billiard table.  Concentration on the game.  Surrendering not.  Letting patience reside with you.  Focusing.  Generating the motion.  Living accuracy.

I don’t even know what color ink this is. Starting to see what is the real thing. Starting to believe something about someone somewhere. Starting to say something intelligent at some point. I’m not sure I know what that point is.

To not read the news.  What a blessing sometimes, to get away from the constant noise, from the battle for your mind.  To stop and think for a change.  Wouldn’t that be a grand idea?  Slow awakening to a better world, slow rising, springing into joy.  Glory happens to each of us, letting the rainbow in, that’s what is going on here.

The video was done with local actors by the Gwent police department, to be shown in area schools as part of a 30-minute deterrent movie about “texting while driving.” It’s effective, violent and bloody. That’s probably the point.

Texting While Driving PSA Delivers Bloody, Bone-Crunching Message – Texting – Gizmodo.

WARNING.  Not for the squeamish. I don’t know about you, but I’m sure there are many out there who are very lucky that this has not happened to them. More ADD activities for us, we are concentrating on so many different things simultaneously. Will we have a chance to slow down? Perhaps only when the grid is disrupted. Then we’ll all get back to agriculture, hard copy, and actually communicating.

I think we do need more of this type of PSA in the states.  But who knows, maybe something like this would backfire, the stubborn in us thinking we’d be immune.  Shock and awe in all of its magnificence.  Woah.

One of my reasons to hang with iGoogle — the Motivational Quotes gadget.  And this just popped in from Jim Henson:

“When I was young, my ambition was to be one of the people who made a difference in this world. My hope still is to leave the world a little bit better for my having been here. It’s a wonderful life and I love it.”

The gadget stays at the top left, and this is one of the great reasons why.  I’d love to share the gadget more easily.  Hopefully that will improve.  And with words like Henson’s, we need more of this sharing, big time.