“While the solstice itself falls on the morning of the 21st, the earliest sunrise of the year occurs a week before on the 14th.” [*]
Monthly Archives: June 2010
She deserved a better end…
Our friend, Kathleen Crownover, died 6/12/10. Eleven months ago, I wrote of her leaving her long-time home of Albuquerque as a kind of death. She proved my pronouncement foolish by prospering for months after the move. Unfortunately, for the past two months, she suffered more and more. One might wish for death, but the body clings to life, no matter how weak or pain-full.
I do not share the belief that Kathleen has gone to a better place. She’s gone. I would feel so much happier if I could think there is more to it than that. But, all can agree, she’s better off than she was a week ago.
Though her end may have a lesson for us all, her life surely did. Kathleen was extraordinarily kind, gracious, and generous. She had a good smile and a sweet chuckle. She was a good friend. We will think of her often.
One story: Kathleen took Merri to Paul’s Monterey Inn many times a year, simply as a friend as well as a thank you to Merri for her long, tireless work on KC’s behalf. I joined them many times in later years. We always had Mark Lyon’s as our superb waiter. One day, Kathleen, who was legally blind, albeit not completely, leaned over toward me in the dark restaurant and said, “Mark, your beard has turned white!” She was right, of course, but anyone who makes you laugh at a truth you’d rather ignore is a gift.
PS: Herewith, I start a new category on my blog: Obituaries. The entries will grow as the exits do.
The Hundredth Monkey Asks, ‘What are we doing to ourselves?’ [updated]
But, is the Internet – the Web, really – worse than TV? Didn’t people wring their hands over kids sitting passively in front of the TV for hours – even as many used them the boob-tube as an electronic babysitter?
We never seem to know what we need to when we need to. It always takes too much time to recognize the lead in the pipes. Lives are ruined in the meantime.
Ruth Marcus – Our gadgets, ourselves
I must know — now — what has arrived in my inbox, even though almost all of it is junk. I live an alt-tab existence, constantly shuttling among the open windows on my browser. I have switched, in Carr’s formulation, from "reading to power-browsing." I am a lab rat "constantly pressing levers to get tiny pellets of social or intellectual nourishment."
I love technology. It lets me work better and faster. It untethers me from a physical office and allows me to, well, alt-tab efficiently between work and family. E-mail and social networking, with the combination of ease of access yet remoteness of interaction, help make and renew personal connections.
But technology also takes its toll — including physically. "The technology is rewiring our brains," Nora Volkow, director of the National Institute of Drug Abuse, told the New York Times. The brain is malleable, and, like any regular exercise, the instant gratification world of the Web helps build certain neural connections while others molder.
Ruth Marcus – Our gadgets, ourselves
Is Nicholas Carr right about the Internet and attention spans? – Newsweek
There’s a lot that’s been written lately about how the Web is puréeing people’s gray matter. The most thorough take on the topic is Nicholas Carr’s new book, The Shallows: What the Internet Is Doing to Our Brains, but anyone who’s been spending a lot of time surfing is probably going to be so distracted by e-mails and Facebook, etc., that he won’t be able to finish the book. Instead, he’ll turn, with irony, to the Web, where he’ll find plenty to read, especially if he’s looking for it today: The New York Times has just published two stories, a blog post, and an interactive feature arguing that the electronic methods by which they themselves are delivered are “intrusive, have increased [people’s] levels of stress and have made it difficult to concentrate.” [mjh: Even more links in the rest of the article.]
Is Nicholas Carr right about the Internet and attention spans? – Newsweek
[Updated 9pm] Newmexiken posts a different view, but don’t let that distract you:
[begin Newmexiken’s entry]
‘[E]very time we learn a fact or skill the wiring of the brain changes’
[mjh: for some reason, this post title makes me think of the assertion that smell involves aroma molecules impacting smell sensors, therefore, when you smell a fart …]
Originally posted Friday, June 11, 2010
If you’re reading this blog post on a computer, mobile phone or e-reader, please stop what you’re doing immediately. You could be making yourself stupid. And whatever you do, don’t click on the links in this post. They could distract you from the flow of my beautiful prose and narrative.
Bilton goes on to discredit that theory and survey some recent thinking on the topic. Among other things, his discussion led me to this:
“And to encourage intellectual depth, don’t rail at PowerPoint or Google. It’s not as if habits of deep reflection, thorough research and rigorous reasoning ever came naturally to people. They must be acquired in special institutions, which we call universities, and maintained with constant upkeep, which we call analysis, criticism and debate. They are not granted by propping a heavy encyclopedia on your lap, nor are they taken away by efficient access to information on the Internet.”
Both are worth reading if you’re not too distracted.
[/end Newmexiken’s entry]
I’m reminded of the word-nerds in Word Wars or Wordplay. They shaped their minds to be very fast with words. Did their checkbook-balancing skills suffer as a result?
On my mind
“I can’t forget, but I don’t remember what.” – Leonard Cohen
living
“I’ve learned that making a ‘living’ is not the same thing as making a life.” – Maya Angelou
Status Updates
Social networking sites, such as Myspace, Twitter, and Facebook, let you use short messages to update your friends on what you’re doing, your mood, etc. Yes, a status update may say more than anyone cares to know, yet these short “Hello World!” messages do remind everyone you’re still alive.
Visitors to my three blogs may notice – or not – that I’ve incorporated status updates into the header of each blog. (On most blogs, the tagline rarely changes.) The two of you who use RSS to subscribe to my blogs will still, er, get the benefit of these updates, which are like any other posting, only briefer. (Huzzah!)
I expect to update my status no more than once a day and as little as once a week on each blog. If you want to see all status updates for one blog, there’s a link for that. To see all updates and entries for all blogs – you glutton, you – there’s a link for that, too.
I do miss the interaction in Facebook, where a status update often elicits a response from more than one friend. Out here in the wilderness, these updates may only be greeted by the sound of tumbleweeds blowing and coyotes ululating. Do feel free to comment (just click on the status update in the header) or send email.
"Ceaselessly musing, venturing, throwing… till the ductile anchor hold; Till the gossamer thread you fling, catch somewhere, O my Soul." Walt Whitman, A Noiseless Patient Spider