those awake

Some Recent Alarms

awakening : Alarms | posted by Shaun O

The blog front has (obviously) been quiet.  We've recently gone to the email approach for conversations, and hopefully that will lead to some interesting things to share ... we'll see.  Blogging & comments just still isn't a workable medium for conversations.  What to use, then?

But, I will share some recent "alarms" (moments/things of awakening!) for me:

• Loren Eiseley's The Immense Journey.  This was on the syllabus for the Literary Nonfiction class that I'm sort of auditing right now, and I'm stunned by the beauty of this naturalist's writing.  It's fun to be introduced to someone that you feel like you could "work" with a bit (maybe some scholarship and whatnot) - and that's Eiseley for me right now.  This book is a collection of essays and they stand alone nicely too.  If you can find his essay The Bird and the Machine (rough link to badly layed-out version here), that would be a great essay to get acquainted with! 

• Sigur Ros Heima.  
  Did you see the documentary of their intimate tour around Iceland?  As much as I'm all about this band, I waited and waited to watch this piece at just the right time ... and then I sorta forgot about it (father, forgive me), but then I remembered and watched it recently, clutching the headphones to my ears ... Yep.  I'll never regret time spent listening, and in this case watching Sigur Ros. 

• Thoreau's Autumnal Tints and our tree!  Kyndra has been out of town, but I'm waiting for her to get back so that we can read Thoreau's essay together and watch the leaves around Reno continue to fall.  I don't know if it's finally owning our own place, or just the fact that we have one prominent, cool tree that our front windows look out upon; but watching the leaves change and fall has been meditative for me.  It has woken me up to fall. 

Homo Evolutis - Robots, the future, and Responsibility?

awake & linking : Homo Evolutis | posted by ThoseAwake

What we are finding out now is that there are not only limits to growth but also to technology and that we cannot allow technology to go on without public consent.
-DAVID R. BROWER

This TED talk is a reminder that new issues of responsibility and liability are approaching (or, are here now) and our generation will have to address them in some way.  In essence, how do we deal with the scientific/moral/real tension between can we? and should we?  

I am stumped as to how my answers to that will serve anyone in any way; but I'm mysteriously convinced that we all are obligated to answer the should we?. 

late night thought

awakening : art | posted by Shaun O

saw a good movie and thought,

"To affect the quality of the day, that is the highest of arts."

-Henry David Thoreau

Blogging gets groggy

awake & linking : We Are Not the Only Ones | posted by Shaun O

 

ThoseAwake has been quiet.  And I haven't been blogging much lately.  In fact, I haven't blogged too much in the past year, and it's been a year that I thought I'd be doing MORE blogging.  I guess that happens.

I can think of a few reasons for it - the most clear reason being poor internet access and poor computing machines! :(  We've been saving money and mouching off of a wireless feed at home, and working on old comps = slow going.  And, at work, I haven't felt compelled.  

But there's been some bloggy-talk going on about Emergent recently, and while I identify with a lot of what is being tossed around, perhaps I most identfiy with this interesting take on so many previously active bloggers now slowing down, taking breaks, and stopping altogether.  

Josh Brown has a new post about it, and writes - 

This is not to say that social media is bad.  But that the norm for the medium has slowly moved from being about the conversation to being about “the idea of conversation”. We like to talk about conversation and church more than we like to practice it.

(And, okay, the "practice church" message isn't new - it's what church is supposed to be.)

*I resonate with this thought about social webyness in general.  These days, I don't read as many blogs, don't blog as much, and don't listen to as many podcasts partly, I think, because some of it began to somehow focus itself on "the idea of conversation."  Twitter and Facebook are less and less appealing too.  

And this is a tough reality now that we live in Reno and I don't have nearly as many face-to-face, good LIFE conversations as I did before.  Why are my good blogs decaying when that's what I was depending on out here?  :)  I think the answer will be fun.   

For now, books and snail-mail.  Let's figure out a good way to converse.

Also, follow Josh's link to other blogs, like TSK, to read about their reasons for slowing up or stopping.

Interesting times of change.  It will be good to keep questioning technology - is this useful???

Knowlege, Craft, Invention, Occupation

awake & linking : Fading Words | posted by Shaun O

Nate at Fading Words mentions a recent Harper's Article and wonders, "at some point, if EVERYONE is a knowledge worker and NO ONE actually makes anything... where are we at?"

Great question!  I'd love to toss it around.  On a very simple plane, isn't there something human about finding/taking pride in a creation?  And is just me, or do actual, physical creations hold a certain value over creations "in our head" or even digital creations?  

I've personally felt this from time to time.  I've had jobs (still do) where I can think/dream up ideas, plans, and modes of storytelling, etc.., but when it comes to physically creating something to be part of that idea or plan, I'm completely dependant on someone who can actually do something from the work of their hands! Sounds dramatic, but it's close to the truth.  While I've enjoyed the reliance on a community to pull something off (recently heard Jonathan Demme, Director of Rachel Getting Married describe the innovative way the film came together - new types of collaboration in film - called it something close to "collective invention" - interesting!), I still feel like I'm missing out on the intangible value of crafting and making the thing (any thing) on my own.  

That's a tangent, but a piece of knowledge work vs. craft work.  Thoughts?

Pine Tree Tops

awake & reading : Gary Snyder Poetry | by Shaun O'Reilly

In the blue night
frost haze, the sky glows
with the moon
pine tree tops
bend snow-blue, fade
into sky, frost, starlight.
The creak of boots.
Rabbit tracks, deer tracks,
what do we know.