Learning Aesthetics

Normally I post links to things I like, occasionally to things I hate, but every now and then I stumble on to something that seems important or maybe useful but I’m not sure whether my reaction is positive or negative. A case in point: Deena Larsen has put together a site for high school and introductory college teachers of electronic literature as a creative writing or rhetoric course called Fundamentals: Rhetorical Devices for Electronic Literature. I offer it without comment beyond, interesting.

And speaking of devices; you may remember that I’ve changed keyboard layouts in an effort to improve my typing speed, futile so far. A side effect has been learning some interesting things about how my mind works, or as often as not, doesn’t work. I’ve always been a lazy typist; despite the best efforts all my high school typing teachers I’ve cheated by watching the keyboard as I type. Obviously that’s not real productive when you shift over to the Drovak layout because now the keys are all mislabeled. However, today I discovered that I type faster and with more accuracy if I watch the keys as I type. I can ignore the labels and sort of visualize the letters and the layout, weird. You never know what you’re addicted to or how hard it’s going to be to break the habit.

Image Mark Wubben

Tell us again why you’re worried about standardized testing?

Mark Pesce has a new post ‘Hyperpolitics (American Style)‘ here are a couple of hints, but read the whole thing:

…Last month, The Economist, that fountainhead of Ur-Liberalism, proclaimed humanity “halfway there.” Somewhere in the last few months, half the population of the planet became mobile telephone subscribers. In a decade’s time we’ve gone from half the world having never made a telephone call to half the world owning their own mobile…

…We have a drive to connect and socialize: this drive has now been accelerated and amplified as comprehensively as the steam engine amplified human strength two hundred and fifty years ago. Just as the steam engine initiated the transformation of the natural landscape into man-made artifice, the ‘hyperconnectivity’ engendered by these new toys is transforming the human landscape of social relations. This time around, fifty thousand years of cultural development will collapse into about twenty…

…Paradoxically, Wikipedia is not at all democratic, nor is it actually transparent, though it gives the appearance of both. Investigations conducted by The Register in the UK and other media outlets have shown that the “encyclopedia anyone can edit” is, in fact, tightly regulated by a close network of hyperconnected peers, the “Wikipedians.”…

…Naturally, governments will seek to control and mediate these emerging conflicts. This will only result in the guns being trained upon them. The power redistributions of the 21st century have dealt representative democracies out. Representative democracies are a poor fit to the challenges ahead, and ‘rebooting’ them is not enough. The future looks nothing like democracy, because democracy, which sought to empower the individual, is being obsolesced by a social order which hyperempowers him.

One of the effects of changing keyboards is mindfulness. When typing becomes conscious, thinking slows down.  A side effect is that I find myself trying to say things more economically; it’s not clear that more words lead to better understanding.  Repetition leads to repeating and not much else.  Hence my fascination with Twitter and with slideshare, even if the presentation has 197 slides.

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It’s our last day and we had a couple of hours to kill before we had to turn in the car; it’s Sunday so why not a trip to the park.  Turns out to have a rather nice Japanese garden complete with some really big koi, butterflies, and wonder of wonders armadillos; three of the little guys.  We’d pretty much given up hope of encountering any of these guys, but there they were.  Casting caution and common sense to the wind I reached out and for those of you who in future encounter me, well you’ll be able to shake the hand that touched the armadillo.

Skimming a Government Technology advertising supplement (I know, I know, but it’s raining and I’m transitioning) on the stunning successes various state and city agencies are realizing by using ‘CA Clarity™ Project and Portfolio Management”.  Now I like tools; as a photographer I understand the criticality of work flow and project management, but I also know how hard they are to implement even in a one person shop where that one person trusts him or her self.  I also have some pretty strong opinions about how well PPM will work in an environment where everyone below believes that lying about their efficiency is to their advantage.

We stayed the night in Segovia Texas, which seems to consist of one active Econo Lodge and a truck stop; the Post Office closed in 1938. It’s a couple of miles east of Junction. While small by Texas standards, Junction is big enough to have a newspaper; it’s not clear to me whether it’s a daily, weekly, or exactly what, but it’s pretty interesting. The news as you might expect is mostly local; the Junction Police Department report, the Kimble County Sheriff’s reports, the traditional who’s visiting who column, the golf news (Closest to the pin was Chris Casaday), letters to the editors, and several opinion columns that read a lot like blog entries. In other words the whole thing feels like a local World Wide Web without the search functions. Speaking of the Web, if you’re checking the obituaries and see someone you knew you can go the Grimes Funeral Chapel site and hit the ‘Send Condolences’ link. While you’re visiting, you might want to check out the Christmas Program, which turns out to be not nearly as odd as you might think.

Travel day. Passed two tank trucks; the back one had chrome mud-flaps that combined with the heat mirage made it look like it had head lights and was coming slow-mo directly at us in our lane. Halliburton markings and enough dials, gages, levers, and tubing to occupy a small third-world country.  All this in some serious back country outside Pecos.  Once we hit route 10 there’s a regular convoy of semis hauling Humvees.  Makes you wonder.

God help me…I’m supposed to be on vacation and I’m posting about Wikipedia Optimized Searching on the iPhone…blame Twitter or maybe it’s an art thing.

If I seem to be behind on the posts we might attribute it to too much sun, which is to say that the trip has moved into less urban or perhaps modern climes. Ever since I first hit the Bob Marshal Wilderness I’ve maintained that no one should hold public office with out first spending a solid month alone in the backcountry. It’s a requirement; you need to know that you don’t need sidewalks. You need to understand that while nature is basically benevolent; she, he, or it will waste you on a whim.  You need context to live on the planet.  In New Mexico June you’re reminded every time you step outside; the temp topped out at 110 yesterday.  Today we’re in Carlsbad and headed into the caves where it’s cool and dark.