Not much has happened, and as usual updates to this blog have glimmered with their absence.
Things I recommend:
* Kaki King at TED
* The TV shows: Life and the very amusing Castle
* Music: Kaki King and Foreign Slippers
I am currently attending a regional union meet at the small coastal town of Florø, on arrival (after a “short” boat trip of 3-4 hours, and as many beers) the weather was, windy is the best description, today however (which is the day after) it is sunny and warm, and it made the discussions and other related work seem somewhat longer. Not saying that is was boring, but knowing what kind of wheater there was here and back in Bergen, I had the feeling I should be sitting in a park (or at least on my balcony) with a cold beer in my hand and some good company.
The “serious” discussions are over for today, and now in a short while, the socializing (dinner and drinks) will commence.
I’ve jumped in with both feet first, as this is the first time I am meeting members of the local union I am representing as well as the regional ones, but it has all been quite pleasant and so far they have not made me regret my decision to come here.
I am now sitting on my balcony in my new apartment, with a lit candle by my side and a bar of chocolate. The day started out a bit stressful, getting home from Voss. But after missing a train, and the subsequent train ride to Bergen it was all good, a coffee and waffle appointment with a friend, and then a stroll through the park, and finding a bench with a view with the accompanying chit chat, it was good. The weather and small clouds passed overhead just as quickly as the time did. Before we knew it, it was almost 10 o’clock and the small raindrops hinted that it was time for us to head home.
It has been a good afternoon and evening… now I am left with a feeling of bliss and remorse. Blissful for the company kept, and the conversations had, and remorseful for them having ended.
But as someone once said, all things must come to an end, even days such as this…
I should be blogging about Stephen Fry’s podcast, and I should be sharing some news with you regarding my new new (I will continue my in my current one as well) as a part-time teacher. Which I am quite happy about as it is slightly more in my area of interest (language that is.)
I should be writing a long and frustrating post about the vaccination scare tactics of some people. This is something I could have achieved today if not for the fact that I got up at a ghastly hour, and shall instead of doing the aforementioned things be sensible and go to bed.
But I do recommend listening to Stephen Fry, even if he in the beginning seems to recount the early days of the Apple vs. MS and IBM days… he moves on to far more interesting subjects.
While trying to get my fix of local news today this popped up instead, and I was like 48454C50, what do I do for my daily dose of random news..
for those of you how doesn’t get this, you can educate yourselves with this wikipedia article.
by way of twitter i discovered this
http://www.visi.com/~snowfall/theorytheory.html
read it, I implore you….
my existential crisis on the web, as I commented in my previous post I have many ideas about things I could write about. My problem is that most of these seem self evident to me. While reading other blogs, news articles I get ideas, I should comment on them. However when formulating a response or a comment, my brain goes something like this “bah, pathoey this is just regurgitated ideas already written about”
There are several original blogs out there, some comment on personal experience and are well written and liked by many, so how do I distinguish myself, what can I do that is different or original if you like, and the only answer I have come up with is that I don’t, I might ideas I like to share, but they are not original and does not warrant time spent writing about them, I can use that time to do other stuff. But I don’t. I kill my brain with sitcoms, drama-series and other entertainment.
This is the curse of the web for me, I want to express myself, I want to exist in an online world. Even if it only represents a fraction of me. Today we have more ways of communicating and educating ourselves than ever (I presume) we can participate in a strangers life, get more involved in our friends life’s, so why I am I left with less social satisfaction today than before, I spend some time on facebook to keep a tally of what my friends are up to, and follow those who use twitter there. This should make me able to communicate with them on a whole new level, but I still feel that it is not enough. To quote a song;
How on earth did I get so jaded
Life’s mystery seems so faded(Soul Asylum – Runaway Train)
Have we reached a level where communication with others on the web is so removed for the actual individual we are trying to communcate with that it seems impersonal. Or are we contempt with passive updates such as “well I know what he/she are up to today, no need to call or speak to them”
Do we spend more time managing our social life online rather than actually participating in it, there are a multitude of tools for sharing our online experience I have mentioned facebook and twitter, then you have services like delicious and a plethora of others. All aimed at somehow sharing our own online experience with others perpetuating the circle.
The counter argument is of course that these services allows us to stay in touch with people regardless of geographical distances, this however have already been accomplished by e-mail, texting. Facebook et.al. however makes it easier to communicate with several people at the same time with out personalizing the message to much thus bringing me back to the argument that in order to communicate with everyone we remove any specific individual meaning other than our own from the message. Typically illustrated by generic status updates on facebook or twitter.
These services have the mechanics of sending messages to a specific person but in using such a service which we associate with mass-communication are we as comfortable with sending personal messages at the same level as say a phone call. Ignoring the fact that while text in all it’s splendor can convey emotions and meaning, is still considered inferior to speaking to someone. Shakespear and Poe can convey meaning, emotions and experience in the individual reading it, but speaking to someone is “there and then” exchange of feeling, emotions and the whole specter of human communication.
Limits of IM communication
(stolen from xkcd)
So what does all this add up to, to be honest I have no idea. All i know is that for better or worse I use the tools available to me, and whether I like it or not it is the reality of the all encompassing communication world that we have today. We choose to participate, we choose how to use these tools. A wise man once said that you cannot speak or try to communicate with everyone, facing one way you will invariably turn your back to half the world.
I seem to have strayed from my orginal thoughts here, apologies, but there it is.
After attempting to create a podcast, I created two episodes (if they can be called that) I have come to realize that filling two formats with random information and updates might be too much for me. I am not structured enough yet, and as always my grandiose plans of becoming a media senstation overnight has been torpedoed by this. (yes, you are allowed to laugh at this, it was a statment made purly out of irony) I have decided that I will discontinue my podcast efforts and rather focus on trying and update this blog more frequently with something of substance, wit, and intelligence. Or atleast two out of those three.
Inspiration seems abundant, energy not so much these days. I will strive to do post atleast once a week on one subject, and there will be minor “this is what I did today” updates or “look what random newsstory I found today” minute updates will be done by twitter.
There was a short bit of news today from the governor which inspired “lipstick-gate”
The state said Wednesday it wants the federal government to withdraw its decision to list the inlet’s population of the small whales as threatened. Gov. Sarah Palin has said she opposes the listing of the Cook Inlet belugas because of the effect it could have on development.
Yes by all means, protecting the wildlife must take a backseat to the economy, the long-term effects be damned we need money now, mindset at work here. The only upside I can think of regardless of the outcome of this case is that she did not become Vice-President of the U.S. There is hope yet for you americans.
The source of this short post can be found here at the Orlando Sentinel
I could write something funny about this, however I think the article says it all.
The 440 students enrolled in the master’s degree course will learn how to write flirtatious text messages and emails, impress people at parties and cope with rejection.
The full story about this course that is available to students at the Potsdam University is available here from reuters
A short comment from me would be if the cast from “Revenge of the Nerds” will be attending ?
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