Food for Thought

Love this

first-drafts-poster-2

Courtsey of CopyBlogger

Especially love #5.  When I told a decades-long time friend that I was going to write a story, he got on his soapbox about first person perspective.  I think he’s still on that soapbox, several months later.  The noise he made about Teh Rulez got into my head so deeply that I haven’t been able to put any thoughts together.  I’ve been writing my way around what I thought I would write about.  I’m working hard at breaking down the mental barriers, including this weird proclamation about adhering to the rules of 1st person perspective, active verbs, comma usage.  Blah.  Who gives a f*ck.  Hang the Rules.  Free the heart and soul.

Single Frame Story … Week 5

I found this week’s Single Frame Story theme challenging.  The theme, as shared on Whiskey’s and Botgirl’s weblog, is “little did he/she know.”  The idea I arrived at was a happy accident, in truth.  My hunch is that can often be the case when it comes to art.  Just being open and receptive enough is sometimes all you need to get the creative juices flowing.  In this case, here’s how the happy accident unfolded.  While listening to wonderful friend Calli dj at Tribeca, the conversation turned to Facebook.  Calli shared her thoughts on it, to which I said “You will be assimilated” and Solaria quipped “Faceborg.” 

As you’ll see when you look at the image, my entry for this week is definitely a group effort.  Thank you, Calli and Solaria, for our fun banter on the social media monolith.  Who knew that in that moment we were truly in the process of creating something.  It’s so much fun when things like that happen…and when I become aware enough at some point to realize it.  

Without further ado, then, here’s the entry from this little “collective”  (appropriately/ironically enough).  The image is entitled: 

“Little do you know just what you’re getting into.”

By the way, Friday nights at Tribeca in midstate new york brings a great group of interesting and fun souls together who enjoy each other, conversation, and Calli’s extensive music selection.  Head on over sometime and get assimilated!

Brain Hacking

There are times when I shake my head and say “whoa.”  One of the many Mashable articles today is this one, about scientists hacking our brains.  I’m no scientist, but I explored a similar idea back in 2009.  It was my attempt at nanowrimo, one that I completed within the year (I believe two months or so but at least the same year).  The story I wrote then was “Concentricity.”  I won’t bore you with all of the posts…it was a difficult concept to flesh out, the idea of being able to hack into brains and consciousness.  I’m sure I’m not the first to come up with this notion, but I hadn’t come across it before (that I’m aware of).  Anyway, I seem to try to articulate the idea a bit more by “Concentricity…9 — The Inner Eye.”

That collective consciousness thing…  Everything really is all interconnected, isn’t it.

The Muse Cometh

The Muse Cometh…in her own time, in her own way. 

A ramble here…

I’m at work.  I should be doing work things.  In fact, I was until just seconds ago when I read a great piece in the NYT called “The ‘Busy’ Trap.”   I particularly like this passage:

Idleness is not just a vacation, an indulgence or a vice; it is as indispensable to the brain as vitamin D is to the body, and deprived of it we suffer a mental affliction as disfiguring as rickets. The space and quiet that idleness provides is a necessary condition for standing back from life and seeing it whole, for making unexpected connections and waiting for the wild summer lightning strikes of inspiration — it is, paradoxically, necessary to getting any work done. “Idle dreaming is often of the essence of what we do,” wrote Thomas Pynchon in his essay on sloth. Archimedes’ “Eureka” in the bath, Newton’s apple, Jekyll & Hyde and the benzene ring: history is full of stories of inspirations that come in idle moments and dreams. It almost makes you wonder whether loafers, goldbricks and no-accounts aren’t responsible for more of the world’s great ideas, inventions and masterpieces than the hardworking.

What has happened to the concept of “reflection”?  How many times have you stopped and thought about…absolutely nothing…and done that for more than 2 minutes?  I don’t mean meditating.  I mean the practice of what used to be a reflexive act of spacing out.  It’s become more like an Art now.  So very few of us do it or do it well.  I don’t space out nearly as often as I used to.  The interesting thing is that without those mental wanderings to Wherever I find it has become increasingly more difficult to be creative, to have something meaningful to say, to connect pieces together.

How do we keep churning out content — much less truly innovate — if we never have time to Not Think?  I haven’t a clue.  It feels increasingly like a mouse running in a wheel, going faster and faster but going nowhere fast.

Neil Diamond used to sing “Don’t think…feel.  It’s no big deal.  Just make it real.  And don’t think…feel.” 

You know what?  It’s become a big deal.  Isn’t it amazing?  But it really has.

Blurring the Divide

After glancing at Mashable’s slideshow on the latest and greatest social networks to watch, I am knocked over by how much these apps provide much of the same functionality we find and enjoy inworld. 

9 Hot Social Networks to Watch

Many of them “gather information nearby about events, friends in the area, people in the area…” 

If that’s not an atomic version of SL maps, minimaps, friends lists, I’m not sure what would be.  Seems something rather LARGE is going on with all of this but I’m unable to articulate the significance of all of these changes that we’re all observing and participating in.  Maybe it’s as simple as asking:  is the divide between atomic and inworld really all that vast any more?  Obviously both worlds have their distinct characteristics, but when fashion and activism, community and status, personalities and relationships, arts and expression, and now inworld tools and atomic world apps flow so effortlessly in both directions…it seems to beg the question or beg that the question be examined again.  Or that the question be reframed.  To what, I don’t yet know.  Do you?  If so please share! But I do wonder where all of this is leading.  To some kind of even deeper convergence between inworld and atomic worlds?  And what will that look like and be like, I wonder?  Seriously.