Category Archives: Life
When the world hits your eye like a nasty pigsty… that’s not amore, that’s Weltschmerz (best English translation: “world pain”). It’s a term I’ve been meaning to post about for years, since it — or rather what it defines — lies at the heart of most of my Rant posts. (Yeah, this is another Drafts post I’m finally setting free.)
Fundamentally, it speaks to a disconnect or gulf between what one feels ought to be true in the world compared to what actually is true. Implicit in the term is a moral bias regarding the ought; it doesn’t, for example, apply to the gap between wishing you were rich while being poor.
It seems to me very much a word for our times.
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7 Comments | tags: scam artists, stupid people, stupidity, Weltschmerz | posted in Life, Rant
The other day I saw in a New York Times article that Alvin Toffler had died last month. The article wasn’t really an obituary so much as about Future Shock, the book Toffler wrote back in 1970. If you’re around my age, you may remember him and the book; both were a bit of a big deal.
I hadn’t thought about that book since back then, but as the Times writer points out, “it seems clear that his diagnosis has largely panned out, with local and global crises arising daily from our collective inability to deal with ever-faster change.” Truer words! Even in 1970, the technological pace was starting to affect people in bad ways, and it certainly hasn’t gotten any better since.
The article really struck a chord! I’ve been thinking quite a lot lately — and have written a few posts — about the growing disconnect between people and their grasp of the technological modern world.
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10 Comments | tags: Alvin Toffler, Carl Sagan, eduation, Future Shock, modern life, technology | posted in Life, Politics
While I’m in a meta mood, there’s a post I’ve been meaning to write for months. It’s particularly apropos as a follow-up to this year’s Blog Anniversary post, especially as it’s a follow-up about Followers.
Specifically, the 2,642 of you supposedly following this blog. Often the proper term might be lurkers, but in this case I lean more towards absent drive-bys. There would be more, over three-grand, but ever since WordPress gave bloggers the ability to delete Followers, I’ve been removing obvious spammers (meaning anyone selling anything).
I’ll give you the punchline so you can stop reading: I’m about to remove nearly all of you.
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20 Comments | tags: blog, blogger, blogging, Followers, lawn, meta | posted in Life
Five years. (And 602 posts.) Literally a handful of years. (And a heartful.) There is a theory that the Roman numeral V represents a human hand, and the numeral X symbolizes two V hands set point-to-point. It seems obvious that “prisoner’s hash marks” — counting the days in groups of five — owes much to our five-fingered hands.
Five is a human number. Small enough to seem fundamental; big enough to be interesting (two and three are so boring; four is kinda square). Five puts the prime in prime! It’s also part of an easy trick for making large right angles (for laying out fields and building pyramids), and it’s the first substantial anniversary gift (paper, cotton, leather, silk, wood).
Five years ago I started this blog…
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9 Comments | tags: Anniversary, blog, blogger, blogging, Followers, July 4, meta | posted in Life
A while back I realized I had an Engineer’s Mind. I’ve always had a sense of that. What I realized was the significance of the Engineer’s Mind category. And of other categories of Mind — for example an Artist’s Mind (which I didn’t discover I also had until high school; see My Life 2.0).
Having a given Mind doesn’t mean one is necessarily good at something (skill takes practice), but it does suggest a predisposition or talent for it. Our minds seem to come pre-wired in two ways: core wiring that makes us human; and “flavor” wiring that gives us (some of our) basic traits. For instance, some people have — or strongly do not to have — a Math Mind.
I’ve found Mind a useful metaphor as well as a game to play.
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7 Comments | tags: art, artist, brain, engineer, engineering, engineers, human brain, human mind, mind, mind-set, teacher | posted in Basics, Life
I’m not a fan of commercial holidays. In particular, I’m not a fan of the idea of one day a year to mark some emotion or thought I’m supposed to have on schedule. I don’t need a calendar reminder to honor my mother, father, or sweetheart (or to be thankful or charitable).
And I’ve been to the well of romance many times in my time, but (alas) every bucket drawn has evaporated, spilled, or been kicked over. Drought may have dried that well, but I still believe in love.
So for lovers everywhere, a lovely love song…
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2 Comments | tags: Bruce Springsteen, Fire (song), Genesis (band), I'm on Fire (song), Peter Gabriel, Pointer Sisters, Scrubs, Sledgehammer (song), Solsbury Hill (song), South Park, Stephin Merritt, The Book of Love, The Magnetic Fields, Valentine's Day | posted in Life
You know you’re a True Minnesotan when you wake up, realize that while it’s 19 out, it’s also a clear blue sky because the storm passed during the night, so you hurry through breakfast so you can go out and play in the snow.
By which I mean shovel your sidewalk and driveway before the condo crew show up and spoil the fun.
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10 Comments | tags: Minnesota, sesame chicken, snow, snow storm, winter, winter storm | posted in Life
Whether it’s Christmas, a related holiday, the Winter Solstice, or just the calendar year, many are celebrating a time of year that is meant to be filled with happiness, family, good wishes, peace on Earth, and goodwill to all. If this season ’tis meaningful for you, I hope it is filled with joy and laughter! May you be content and fulfilled. And safe.
But take a moment to think of those who are not safe. Or whose bellies are empty, or whose homes are lost. We have much to do before all are safe, content, and fulfilled. Miles to go before we sleep.
Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night.
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10 Comments | tags: Christmas, Christmas carols, Christmas Day | posted in Life
So what are the odds of reading two posts in short succession, both of which just demand to be reblogged? As I commented on the original post, speaking as a life-long deep reader, I agree with every word.
8 Comments | tags: intelligence, reading | posted in Books, Life
Source: A photographer edits out our smartphones to show our strange and lonely new world
As someone who has never owned a smartphone, and who thinks the rest of you often look, not just like idiots, but enslaved idiots, I really like this guy’s vision.
Right on!
40 Comments | tags: smartphones | posted in Life
Logos con carne 