ISIS 120

Hopefully, by this time next week my malaise will be a thing of the past. So far it's been pretty spot on...started just before Feb 12 and since my birthday is Saturday I should be fine by next Monday.

I am trying to do readings for a class from Duke University called "This is your brain on the Internet." The instructor blogs, so I can see what she thinks and maybe what some of her students are posting. If nothing else, the reading list looks interesting. I decided to go to a symposium entitled "Mysterious Things" which has a Women and Gender History focus. Since I haven't bothered to keep up this journal for awhile, I think I will try to keep a record of my progress here.

First reading:
1. Jean-Dominique Bauby, The Diving Bell and the Butterfly: A Memoir of Life in Death, First Edition Thus. (Vintage, 1998).

One reason I am interested in "This is your brain on the internet" is my own brain problems. It will be 38 years tomorrow and I still have problems. I shouldn't bitch, I am pretty much fully functional. I'm not paralyzed like Bauby, my aphasia is mild enough that I can read, write, think and use the internet. I have a job in my field. I have a wonderful family who is loving and supportive, not to mention very tolerant of my quirks (like bouncing from interest to interest and not focusing on anything).

Reading Bauby's book made me feel like I am a real underachiever. His use of language is exquisite, particularly considering that he was dictating it with his eyes.

WTF? She's insane!!!

I may have to do this in a list, but I'm not sure. Maybe a mind map would be better. Maybe if I write it out I will figure out what is important and what isn't important, and maybe I will be so whelmed (over, under, and all the way around) that I will crawl quivering to my closet and hide like I did when I was young. I have a horrible character flaw. in that I can not focus. I have all sorts of interests and every time something new comes along..."Oh, shiny" my ADD kicks in and I am off on a tangent (which can sometimes be a very rough ride.) I don't mind being a generalist most of the time. It's okay to know just enough about something to be dangerous, especially since I really to have the skills to find out more if I really want to.

It would help if my memory didn't suck. It would help if I had enough confidence to believe that I could be really good at one or two things...I don't, so I am half assed at many things. That's where I am now. I need to figure out what I am trying to accomplish first, and then maybe I can figure out what I need to do to get things done.

In no particular order:

meditation-to help with focus and pain--->how does meditation impact my spirituality and how can I open up to being more spiritual-I am a zen pagan, but I don't know a whole lot about either formal buddhism or paganism (make a list of books about zen and paganism, sit with jundo in the beginning meditation class, write)--->writing-I have 3 blogs, twitter, facebook, live journal, google reader, email, and an analog journal. I want to write more book reviews (for amazon, etc) and put them on one of the blogs, depending on whether the book is feminist/music oriented, library oriented, or other-->library-this is my "real world" job and I like it, but it makes me so tired sometimes (not to mention I start surfing the web to pick up ideas about librarianship and possibly blog them and every time I do I fall further and further behind)/I'm on the student training committee and I haven't done enough work for that/I'm weeding the vertical file and trying to make sure the information is available on the G://drive and maybe as a LibGuide or something-->trying to integrate the tools I use like gmail/google search. evernote, zotero, etc.-->women's history month/Womyn Making Waves (both the show and the blog)/weft-->control my diabetes so I am not tired all the time and I don't hurt-->food planning and exercise--->I have to get out of bed in the morning if I am going to exercise...if I can't manage the pool due to timing I can still walk and meditate-->D&D-this is how I connect with Sean and I actually enjoy it most of the time (especially if we make it a two day marathon game once a month instead of a one day plus 6 hour round trip)-->watching tv/movies with TC because we don't spend enough time together (again a timing problem)-->make time to connect with Cheron and Kathi--and I just found this kick ass class called "this is your brain on the internet," signed up for HASTAC and downloaded the first book from the syllabus (i should have read it anyhow) because I am interested the the way the internet changes your brain and in neuroscience and brain plasticity (and the dalai lama is into science which takes me back to buddhist study)-->and howard rheingold is into some of the things I find interesting like infotention and crap detection, because infoliteracy is something that libraries need to focus on-->slow reading is here someplace, as well-->and TED-->there is a TEDx conference coming up and I want to take part in it-->I need a vacation on my own, but we aren't even going to any science fiction conventions again until Duckon-->and kittencon is in April.

...and this is just the stuff that is floating around in my brain on a friday afternoon.

Reading List:
Girls Like Us-currently reading for WHM
Eden's outcasts (about LM Alcott & her father)
Engineer of human souls (@mikecane mentioned)
Gutenberg Galaxy, Marshall McLuhan
In the name of heaven, 3000 years of religious persecution
Migrations to solitude-Sue Halpern
Name of the Rose-Umberto Eco (someone on twitter recommended)
Of time and the river-has a good library quote
Twilight of the superheroes
Wanderlust:a history of walking-Rebecca Solnit
The Diving Bell and the Butterfly-1st book for "this is your brain on the internet"
This Book is Overdue-hot new librarian book
Turning the Mind into an Ally-Sakyong Rimpost
For Us, the Living - Robert Heinlein's lost first novel (a reread)

Just finished the 3 Aud Torvingen books by Nicola Griffin

I'm sure I'm missing something. I HATE to miss things.

scares the crap out of me-Jesse Schell Dice 2010

DS Games - E3 2010 - Guitar Hero 5

This video starts out innocently enough, but by the time it was done I was having Clockwork Orange flashbacks

No comment

it's in the stars

K: Woo is kind of a derogatory term for all things intuitive, mystical, and unsubstantiated by empirical science. And although I’m inherently an intuitive, spiritual, lovey-dovey, angels-and-unicorns-and-cupcakes chick, I’m also a product of western culture. I like me some MDs, statistics and scientific inquiry. I like proof. So although I love the metaphors and the use of astrology as a lens into self-reflection, I’m a bit skeptical about it. All that is to say, I don’t really know what it means to be a Pisces.

R: Pisces are imaginative, intuitive, intense, passionate, sensual and live in the realm of fantasy.

K: Oh, so Pisces are slutty.

R: We’re generous.

Thanks to Kelly Diels (Cleavage)

Luckiest Man in the World

Howard Rheingold is one of the luckiest men I know. He has cancer, and is posting about that experience as "howardsbutt." That's not so lucky, I suppose.

But when i read the following, I envied him"

I am doing three kinds of things now .I get on planes and give keynote speeches. That’s mostly how I pay my bills. I teach at Stanford and Berkeley and the California Institute of Integral Studies. I’m working on a multifaceted project about 21st century literacies that involves teaching tools, videos, and, eventually, a book. I’m doing this book on my own because even before I knew I had cancer I knew I didn’t want to wait for publishers to finally get what I’m talking about (I wrote about virtual communities in 1987, but it took until 1992 to convince a publisher that anybody but engineers would ever be interested in using computers to communicate). I applied for a Guggenheim grant. I gave notice to UC Berkeley that I’m taking leave this Spring semester to work on my book. I’m open to an angel investor. But I’m already being my own angel investor. I’m going to continue this project as far as I am able to do so. The subject is important. It’s part of what I uniquely have to contribute to the world. It isn’t going to cure a disease or cause world peace to break out, but I do believe that the instruments I am building for spreading know-how about the best use of digital media could enable others to do good things.

As I told my digital journalism students, it took me zero seconds to realize that I’m going to continue teaching them as long as I’m able, because I know that equipping the people who are going to reinvent journalism is an important thing to do. And because trying to teach and learn excellently is the most difficult and rewarding work I’ve ever done.

Come Spring, I hope to have recovered from the treatment cycle that I am now beginning. Time to plant the garden and work on the book. For the past couple decades, I’ve been blessed to sit barefoot under my plum tree, my mind wired directly to the world through my laptop. I yearn to return to that blessed place for another Spring, another Summer, if such is granted to me. Until then, I’m working with my students until the end of the quarter — which corresponds with the end of my treatment cycle.

Support the Authors

Here is a link to a post on Whatever, John Scalzi's blog. He is writing about the McMillan/Amazon fight (which is just started paying attention to today, due to Real Life(tm) getting in the way.

I would suggest that you read the whole thing, and also this and this and this and this.

I have to admit that I use Amazon. A lot. I like the Kindle software for PC. But dammit, these are people I know and like (even though Stross tried to convince me that I should ditch windows for linux) and I don't want to see them get trampled in a pissing contest between Amazon and the publishers.

In case you don't want to read search "amazon" and "mcmillan" and read everything that everyone has posted so far, here is a quote from Scalzi:

One response to this from fans of these affected writers is to boycott Amazon. But you know what, I think that’s putting the focus where it shouldn’t be. This crux of this matter is a negotiation between two corporate entities, and that’s something a boycott just isn’t going to matter to, or solve in any meaningful way. And in the case of the authors involved, it’s not going to help them make sales.

So rather than focus on what should happen to Amazon or Macmillan, here’s an idea, and here’s my point: let’s us focus on the writers, who are getting kinda screwed here. None of this is their fault, it has nothing to do with them, and they don’t deserve to lose sales and their livelihood while this thing goes down. If you want to make a statement here, don’t make it against a corporation, who isn’t listening anyway. Make it for someone, and someone who will appreciate the support.

Support the authors affected. Buy their books.

How to do this is simple enough: Remember there’s more to bookselling than Amazon. Offline there are brick and mortar bookstores — go visit one. They like visitors. Tell them I sent you. Online there is Barnes and Noble. There’s Powell’s. IndieBound will hook you up. Specialty bookstores have their own web sites. You can often buy books online from the publishers themselves. Hell, even Walmart.com sells books.

Yes, yes. I know, you know Amazon isn’t the only place to buy books online. But that doesn’t mean you use those other places. I had a friend who used Barnes & Noble’s web site for the very first time in a decade today, because, as it happens, Amazon wouldn’t let him buy a book. He was pleased to discover B&N let him use PayPal. Good for him. The point is, he didn’t let a balky retailer keep him from getting a book he wanted. I suspect too many people do just that; they get used to going to that one place online and forgetting there are any other options. Well, you know. Remember, please.

Here’s the Macmillan site — I give it to you not as a show of support for Macmillan but because it has all the books, imprints and authors affected by this thing. Find a book you like and want, and then go to any retailer you want, who will sell you the book, and then buy it. It will matter to the author. And I personally would appreciate you supporting these people who are my friends and fellow writers, who could use a break in all of this. Give it some thought today, if you would. And pass the idea along. Thanks.