Where Do You Stash Your Minutes of Life?

Would an Internet outage put your life on hold?

My vacation was fairly tech-free, which left me energized and refreshed. So I was rather amazed at the fallout from the Wikipedia blackout January 18.

Not the political issues—addressed elsewhere in this blog—but the social issues. Maybe you’ve heard comments like these regarding an Internet outage:

“I think it’s easier to get off heroin.”
“There would be a sense of loss: what would I do with my time?”
“That would be beyond catastrophic.”

Even if I couldn’t head for the library, or pick up a book from the stack I feel like I stole from Border’s (they were so cheap), I am so blessed that I can draw on a rich inner life. My top 5 things I would do (besides read) with the “extra” time:

1. walk and talk or visit a friend
2. plan an evening of games with friends
3. experiment with exotic recipes from a, yes, cookbook
4. write a letter with colored pens and stamp it and mail it
5. plan ways to display family photos (since they haven’t been on Facebook anyway)

What would you do during an Internet vacation? Can you even conceive of such a thing?

A Thank You to Those Who Sacrificed

“Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few.”

What have you gained from the sacrifice of others?

Those words by Winston Churchill, although not spoken specifically about the U.S. entrance into World War II (December 7, 1941), encapsule the entire war years and give us the proper perspective.

Each generation since that “greatest generation” should pause today and reflect on what world war meant to country, home, and family. Even if the impact was a few generations ago, there isn’t a person alive who has not been shaped by that conflict—perhaps by a change in homeland, language, or family unit. Perhaps it was a shift in family occupation, eduation level, or prosperity—World War II has affected each of us.

At the risk of romanticizing the past, I suggest checking out a film about the era (my favorite, “The Longest Day”). And continue to remember what you owe.

What’s your favorite World War II film or quotation?

Copyright at the Core of Digital Media and Cultural Advancement

Digital media of all types have raised the discussion about a creator’s right to benefit from his (or her) creation.  (We also call that copyright.) As I see it, creation is colliding with the collaboration that is at the core of digital media. I don’t have much confidence in collaborative outcomes in terms of art or literature (or politics, for that matter).

Lining up on one side of this discussion is Creative Commons, a non-profit promoting copyright reform. They couch their argument in terms of cultural advancement. They offer an alternative to copyright:

With a Creative Commons license, you keep your copyright but allow people to copy and distribute your work provided they give you credit — and only on the conditions you specify here.

In simplest terms: is that how you, a creator, want to work? You toil and innovate and only get satisfaction from being a hyperlink?

Which way is right for both creators and culture?

Maybe some people feel that way; they can sign up now.

One of the voices on the other side is journalist Robert Levine. I find great satisfaction that he has framed his careful argument in print, through the 2011 book, Free Ride: How Digital Parasites are Destroying the Culture Business, and How the Culture Business Can Fight Back. Levine provides a detailed background and poses thoughtful questions that we cannot ignore. There has to be a place to have access to the wealth of digital information, yet support its creators if they so prefer.

Which side is truly promoting cultural advancement?

Will You Embrace Digital Literature?

Can a digital file grab you like a book does?

The work of the Electronic Literature Organization (ELO) is interesting, thought-provoking—and unsettling. The ELO focuses on “digital-born” literature for those who no longer regard the printed book as “an exclusive medium of education or aesthetic practice.”

Let’s break that down. Yes, I can agree that books are no longer “exclusive” in education. I’m enrolled in an online class and although we use a book, much of our content is from the web. For my profession, much of my advanced skill development is on the web. Higher education degree programs continue to embrace distance/online learning, with alternatives for printed materials.

But I pause at “aesthetic practice.” There is a beauty, an aesthetic, to books. They do not onlyconvey information or ideas, but have a message of their own delivered in a package of heft, size, texture, smell, and color. A book is more than its content.

ELO gives examples of electronic literature:

• Hypertext fiction and poetry, on and off the Web
• Kinetic poetry presented in Flash and using other platforms
• Computer art installations which ask viewers to read them or otherwise have literary aspects
• Conversational characters, also known as chatterbots
• Interactive fiction
• Novels that take the form of emails, SMS messages, or blogs
• Poems and stories that are generated by computers, either interactively or based on parameters given at the beginning
• Collaborative writing projects that allow readers to contribute to the text of a work
• Literary performances online that develop new ways of writing

Is it literature if we all collaborate? Is it literature if it’s performed or viewed? Is it literature if I determine the outcome—if I grab and shape a story instead of its grabbing and shaping me?

What are your thoughts?

Children’s Books—Hope for the Future of Print Media?

Will your grandchildren ask you to "read me a book?"

 

 Recent exposure to the hot topic of digital media has caused me to think, think, think about its implications in my life both personally and professionally.

 

Today I want to focus on the personal side and my love affair with books—their texture, shape, smell, appearance. A book’s paper, design, and typeface (“font” for you Gen-Yers) impact my perception (and yours, too, if you think about it) of  the author and his/her work. Think of a favorite childhood book and your emotional memory bank will awaken. Will all of that be Kindled away?

 

This recent New York Times article provided some hope: 

Print books may be under siege from the rise of e-books, but they have a tenacious hold on a particular group: children and toddlers. Their parents are insisting this next generation of readers spend their early years with old-fashioned books.

This is the case even with parents who themselves are die-hard downloaders of books onto Kindles, iPads, laptops and phones. They freely acknowledge their digital double standard, saying they want their children to be surrounded by print books, to experience turning physical pages as they learn about shapes, colors and animals.

 Maybe children will save us from this onward rush to ethereal infatuation.

Be sure to buy a book for your next gift to a child—better yet, read it together.
 

Thanksgiving, Part 1 of 2

“Please, would you explain what is Thanksgiving?” the woman comes up to me at the end of an English language learners class. She’s been in the U.S. five months.

Wow—a chance to teach a new immigrant the truth. Random facts spill from me:

The pilgrims desired to worship freely

• 1620 (I’m rather amazed I manage to pull that date from memory)
• Pilgrims
• Massachusetts (oops—that word puzzles her)
• Indians
• England
• harvest
• thankfulness
• freedom to worship God

I continue: “It’s a beautiful holiday—a day to thank God for His blessings. A few people even go to church that day, although not many. Many Americans don’t even know the real meaning.” I’m enjoying this pure moment.

I admit, I’m trying to innoculate her against the Commercialization Machine that revved up late October, grinding towards New Year’s Eve. For the few minutes we speak, at least, the Thanksgiving holiday stands alone in its glory.

May your Thanksgiving be a deliberate, focused celebration of gratitude with your loved ones.

Thanksgiving, Part 2 of 2

I truly love Thanksgiving, as do most of you.

This is the day we empty our Thanksgiving jar—a canister stuffed with scribbled scraps of paper collected throughout the past year. With those scraps we travel back, reviewing a landscape of God’s loving provision toward us: “Remember this?” “Oh, I’d forgotten I had to deal with that!” “Oh yeah, that was amazing.” Some years it takes us hours to go through our jar as we re-tell our stories.

A Thanksgiving jar can be a joyful addition to your holiday

We tend to jot down the good, material blessings—but sometimes we surprise ourselves with a note about how we have been delivered through, not out of, something.

 How will you focus on thankfulness this Thanksgiving?

I’m Humming a New Song

In roaming around the Internet, searching for how-to’s on creating the Ultimate Website, I found this heart-warming post on the value of editors to web projects. It makes me want to sing!

An editor can harmonize your website.

I greatly appreciate this confirmation of my experience, as discussion swirls through my profession: are we copy editors or content editors?

It’s obvious to me that we editors can help the web beyond words–with space, with layout, with visuals and voice. This post calls an editor’s contribution a “glorious cycle of song.”

If you wonder how to improve your website, check out this post for the benefits you’ll gain with an editor. And present to the world a site that bursts with harmony.

How do you maintain harmony in your website?

 

Are Your “Favorites” Fluid or Frozen?

Do you mean today's favorite?

It suddenly struck me as I had yet another series of security questions to answer: all these torturous shenanigans are devised by under 40’s, the Gen Y’s.

I had to answer five questions along the lines of “my favorites” seen in the list here:

Only a Gen Y would torture the public with insane security questions that rely not just on memory but on life in frozen time.

My life is too fluid. What is my favorite today most likely won’t be my favorite tomorrow. For example (I don’t mean this as a pun), a favorite beverage? It depends what I’m eating (though red wine seems to go well with everything) . . . time of year (hot chocolate is near the top these chilly days) . . . and what’s in the  fridge (I wouldn’t buy it if it weren’t a favorite).

This particular list—and the other four I  suffered through—wasn’t developed by someone with imagination. Is the Questioner stuck in life? Can she only envision One Favorite Choice?

I also know that these questions are developed by Gen Y because she hasn’t lived long enough to realize: your best friend now may not be your best friend from five years ago. Your favorite childhood book may be viewed in a different light years later. And what was that favorite quote  I wrote in everyone’s yearbook? And so on.

I love tradition, but there is freshness and freedom that comes from changing your  “favorites” as you grow wiser.
How do you uncover new “favorites” in life?

When You Have to Stay in Your Misfit Job

What seeds are you planting for your future job?

I don’t want to belabor the topic, but from my perspective there are a lot of you in misfit jobs. And a lot of you can’t make a change right now, for a variety of reasons.

How can you make life better as a misfit? Here are 4 tips: 

1. Know what your boss wants/expects from you and provide it (compliance, reporting requirements, tasks handled, etc.).
2. Ask for help. Ask for training. Ask again.
3. Parlay your desires into volunteer work in your ‘dream’ area and/or jobhunting. Your résumé is updated, right?
4. Be good to yourself off-hours.

Guess what? These are all skills you’ll need to harvest your dream job. Might as well plant the seeds.

What helps you get through a misfit job?