Hunkering

Ahh!  This is Minnesota.  We’re expecting snow tomorrow.  A big ol’ storm.  Depending upon the forecast, our area is supposed to get anywhere between 10 to 14 inches.  Like all good Minnesotans, we are preparing.  We love to prepare, stocking the larder, getting out the snow shovels, buying sidewalk salt, gassing the cars so we have a good amount in the tank before getting snowed in.  This is hunkering at its finest.

Of course, it remains to be seen as to whether we actually get any snow.  We’re crossing our fingers, but not holding our breath.

What’s the Point?

Can somebody please explain something for me? WordPress very kindly shows me incoming links to my posts – that is, it shows me when someone else has linked to me through another blog. Yesterday’s post on Microcelebrity was linked to twice. (Forex & aarnimaa) Curious, I checked both links and found that they lead to silo-filler blogs. These are blogs that don’t seem to have a point, other than to grab someone else’s content and post a portion.  (As opposed to posting a portion and making original commentary about it.  That’s perfectly acceptable and appreciated.)  Sometimes these silo-filler blogs appear to have advertising, but not always. While I could maybe understand grabbing my content if you were trying to make a buck (which is not allowed with my Creative Commons license*), I don’t get why anyone would want to grab my content for what appears to be no reason.  Does anyone know what’s behind this?
Looking on the bright side, at least these blogs are linking back to my original posts. But still.

I’m so confused.

*P.S. My Creative Commons license allows for non-commercial reuse as long as you attribute my work to me.

Microcelebrity

I have the newest issue of Wired magazine in my hot little hands.  (Okay, if you must know, it’s really sitting under one knee while I type this.)  I’ve got it cracked open to an article by Clive Thompson called “Almost Famous.”  In it, Clive discusses the phenomenon of microcelebrity that has been brought on by the culture of the internet, especially with Web 2.0 applications such as blogs, social networking sites, Twitter, and Flickr.   He suggests that those of us with an online presence are starting to adjust our behavior in the real world in consideration of what might end up online.  He says, “We’re learning how to live in front of a crowd,” and continues by indicating that our teens and “twentysomethings” . . . “understand the impact of logos, images, and fonts.”

In a culture that glorifies fame and slings advertising at us from all directions, is it any wonder that this is the result?  The gene for self-promotion has grafted itself into our DNA through overexposure.  The internet allows the gene a perfect environment for expression.

As Clive points out, when you  have an online presence, you are bound to be watched, even if only by a handful of people.  The potential for a greater audience, of course, is always lurking, so you’ll want to manage your image, projecting what it is you wish to project, protecting what you want to protect.

I am very aware that my writing is my calling card, that it speaks for me as I speak through it.  Blogging allows me a space in which I can find readers, some who might never see the work I create in print form.  I have been attempting to carefully manage my image as far as personal safety is concerned.  Those of you who read regularly know that I don’t ever use the names of my family members.  I use descriptors instead – i.e. Hubby, Eldest Son, Daughter, Young Son #2.  This is as much for their own privacy as it is for safety reasons.  If they later decide to “go public” online, they can choose the level of privacy they’re comfortable with.

Given the privacy concerns, you might wonder why I use my real name.  While it might be fun to make up a fictional moniker, I desire to openly claim my work.  You might call this narcissism, but this is not a shallow feeling.  It’s about staying honest.  If my name is on a piece of writing, I have to take responsibility for it.  There’s also a sense of remaining true to myself.  This is my work, an expression of me.  If my identity keeps shifting through avatars, you’ll only get a glimpse of me, not a fuller version of me.  While I enjoy writing fiction, I don’t want to become fiction.

When I think of what I want to know about my favorite authors and musicians, I realize that I want enough of a picture of them that I can sense what they might be like if I actually met them.  How are they in relation to the world?  In relation to the people they surround themselves with daily?  Are they capable of humor?  Of complicated thoughts?  Can they come to a conclusion on their own?  What do they look like?  What do they sound like?  It’s like putting together a puzzle, every piece adding to the greater whole.

When I realized that I always look for a photo of an author on a dust jacket, I knew that I had to put a photo of myself on my blog.  It was not my first choice and you’ll see that I didn’t put one on my old blog, Filter & Splice.  I don’t photograph particularly well, but I’ve practiced with my digital camera enough so that I can get a half-way decent shot.  In managing my online image, of course I’ve used a picture I like, one that my husband took.  It’s about putting my best foot forward for you, dear readers, and for giving you another little piece of the puzzle.

P.S.  The designs of my blogs (and their names) are also a part of managing my online image.  They say as much about me as my words and my photo.

The Head Clears

Normally, Monday is a writing day for me.  Yesterday, however, I had too much other stuff to do.  Eldest Son needed a state photo identification card, I had paperwork to do, Mom needed a ride to visit Grandma, Daughter and her friend needed a ride, and Young Son needed new shoes.  Hubby and I took him shopping for said shoes.  The trip was successful, with new shoes purchased and transported home.  Once home, there was supper to cook and a ride home for Daughter’s friend.  Then it was time for a writers group meeting.  Only one other person showed up, my good friend, so we retired to my house for tea and chatting.

While certainly a productive day, there was no time for writing.  [Sigh.]

The good news is that I’m taking next week off work.  The goal is to finish my final story in the Greenville series and read through and edit the rest.  I’m crossing my fingers.

The other good news is that avoiding the computer for the day (with the exception of an email to a friend) led to a clearing of my head.  It put me back into a creative space.  Not that I’m not creative on the computer – it’s just a different kind of creativity.  Without the input of physical activity, I tend to get sucked into the computer and my creativity feels as though it gets a little one-dimensional.  I start feeling disconnected from the real world.  Breaks are a good thing.  Next week, I’ll attempt to focus on my stories, rather than online work, so you may only see brief or periodic updates.  Just a forewarning.

I Dreamt

I dreamt I was dreaming of a windstorm and when I awoke, in my dream there was a windstorm.

I dream of abandoned babies.  I’m always saving them.  Two appeared last night, both boys.  One was too young to speak.  The other, when asked who his mother was, replied, “Smokey Bottle.”  When asked who his father was, he had an equally witty reply, which made me think that whoever had abandoned him had been quite intelligent.

Entropy & Uncertainty

There’s an interview with Dave Matthews in the November 15, 2007, issue of Rolling Stone magazine that has caused a little stir.

To find a link to the article, go to the Weekly Davespeak Forum and click the link in the first thread.   I discovered that you have to be patient with this link as the new digital form of Rolling Stone is wonky.  It won’t necessarily download immediately.  If it doesn’t, close the window and try the link in Weekly Davespeak again.  When the magazine loads, go to TOC (table of contents) and scroll to page 113.  The interview is two pages long.  Use the navigational tools provided.  Printing the article is a further exercise in patience.  Using the menu within the page, go to File, Print.  I tried various settings and the best I got was a copy of each page that was about 1/2 the size of an 8 1/2 x 11 piece of paper.  You’ll need a magnifying glass to read the text.  You can skip all of this print rigmarole by adjusting the magnification on the viewer and reading the article online.  Also, I’ll quote the appropriate text here, hopefully not taking it too far out of context, and you can save yourself the aneurysm.

Here’s one portion that people are taking issue with:

Dave was asked by Anthony DeCurtis:  “You recently played FarmAid, and you’re involved in many social causes.  What’s the most pressing?”

Here’s a part of his answer:  “So often we talk about saving the planet, but what we really mean is to save the planet the way it is, so that we can live here.  So that it can sustain us.  Because the planet doesn’t need to be saved.  It doesn’t care if all the squirrels, elephants and trees die and there’s just a couple of amoebas floating around at the poles.  Mother Nature’s not going to weep for what she’s lost.  In a handful of millions of years, everything will be green again and nothing will have changed.  It won’t matter in the slightest.  We will have been brushed off the shoulder of the living universe indifferently.

“The idea that we’re somehow centrally important to the planet’s existence is pretty comical — although I’d like us to be.  I’d like to think that the eyes of some heavenly body are watching us and saying, “Oh, look at my beautiful children.”  But it’s absurd.  It’s just our attempt to be more important than a tree.”

Dave is expressing his view of a natural process that is fascinating to me – Entropy.  The idea of entropy hit me full force a year or so ago when I was at my sister’s house.  She lives on a dirt road out in what is affectionately known as “the boonies.”  Not far from her house is a barn that has seen better days.  It is disintegrating, as all human-made materials will do if they are not continually maintained.  Entropy is a lovely force of nature and works with amazing speed.  Wind, rain, sun, microorganisms, and some not-so-micro organisms do their work, reclaiming the barn’s elements for other purposes.  It does not matter to Mother Nature that maybe the farmer would like to use the barn in the future.  She’s going to take back that which we neglect.  The wind, rain, sun, microorganisms and not-so-micro organisms are just as important as human beings in this scheme of things.  No more, no less . . . just as.  We use nature, nature uses us right back.  Fair is fair.

Anthony DeCurtis continues his line of questioning with:  “You’ve talked publicly about being an agnostic, which is pretty daring these days.  Politicians are falling all over themselves . . . .”

To which Dave replies:  “Yeah, “Get out of my way so I can get into the church.”  It’s so small a view of things.  Obviously, theres’ a source of all things, however big or small it is.  But if you give it consciousness, it just gets smaller.  If you give it concern for us, it gets smaller.

“I use the word “God” in my songs all the time, because I don’t know what the hell’s going on.  So that’s God — everything that I don’t know.  But the idea of God  as a fatherly figure who looks down on us and worries how we’re doing or takes sides when we have fights – that’s more irritating than Santa Claus.  The world and the universe are far more wonderful if there’s not a puppet master.”

Dave is reveling in the uncertainty of life.  Hard to believe, but there are those of us who enjoy the questions more than the answers.  We don’t need a God who gives us black & white, heaven & hell kinds of answers.  I fall into the category of enjoying the uncertainty, of being okay with the grays of life.

I don’t have to know what’s going to happen to me after this life.  It’s fun to speculate, but my speculations are open-ended, along the lines of — What if I came back as a tree or a rock?  What must it be like for the rocks of this world?  Do their souls move really slowly?  How do they experience time?  Maybe I’ll reincarnate as a man next time.  Maybe I’ll be shuttled to another place in the universe.  What might that be like?  Hmmm.  I wonder.  It’s good for the imagination, but it always ends with the fact that I was given this particular life right here and right now.  It is the one thing I definitively have and I’d better make the most of it.  No matter what comes after this, I only get one shot at this life and I need to treat it as a precious thing.

I agree with Dave about something else here.  We humans are always trying to limit God, framing God in our image, casting judgments about our fellow human beings as though we ourselves are God.  I think we are all expressions of God, just like the wind, sun, trees, microorganisms and rest of the universe, and, by limiting God, we limit ourselves.

Let’s cut the strings of the puppet master God and enjoy the entropy and uncertainty.

Marathon iPod Session

Last night I spent several hours loading music into iTunes – ripping my CDs -so that I could get my music collection onto my iPod.  It was pretty slick for the most part, except for Dave Matthews Band’s CD “Stand Up.”  I’m not sure what’s up with this CD, but ripping was taking forever, so much so that I disconnected it midway through, thinking I was doing something wrong.  Every other CD ripped fairly quickly and I tried again with “Stand Up,” but it was still poky.  There were complaints about DRM on the disk when it came out, so I wonder if that’s what’s causing the sluggishness.

I finished around midnight and, of course, I had to have a listen.  The first song I officially listened to was “All These Things That I’ve Done” by The Killers.  Totally killer.   I followed this up with “Angel of Harlem” by U2.

I have my songs loaded alphabetically and played the iPod this morning through a pair of cheap, tiny speakers.  Because the songs are alphabetically arranged, the artists are all mixed up, so it’s like listening on shuffle.  I never quite know what to expect next.  It keeps things interesting.

There’s one little problem I’ve had with the iPod.  The ear buds don’t fit properly in my ears.  My ears feel too small and if the ear buds aren’t tilted correctly, I don’t hear much.  Has anyone else had this problem?  Oh, and one other thing.  iTunes required me to enter a credit card number in order to register for the service.  What the f***?!?  I’m required to enter credit card data?  Does Apple not remember that it sells iTunes cards, so people don’t have to use a credit card to purchase music?  That’s what we give our daughter all the time.  When she got her iPod, she wasn’t required to enter a credit card to use the service.  What gives, Apple?

Otherwise, the interface is fairly intuitive to use, the size of the Nano is nice, and I really dig the color.  I’ve become a joiner.

Bread & Circuses

My brother and I were chatting on the phone recently. I can’t remember exactly what we were talking about, but at one point in the conversation, he said, “Bread and circuses.” And I was like, “What?” He said, “Haven’t you ever heard of bread and circuses?” Me: “Nope. What’s that about?” Brother: “It’s a Roman saying, which essentially means that if you give the populace bread and circuses, they will be pliable.” In other words, they’ll be so numb to what’s really going on that those in power can take full advantage of them. Not a situation you want if you’re striving for a democratic society.

I did an internet search to find the source of the quote and found that Juvenal, a Roman poet and satirist wrote it. He lived between 55 AD and 127 AD. The full quote is as follows:

“The people that once bestowed commands, consulships, legions, and all else, now concerns itself no more, and longs eagerly for just two things – bread and circuses!”

Juvenal had some other interesting quotes, ones that have become moral standards, such as:

“Peace visits not the guilty mind.“

“A healthy mind in a healthy body.“

“Refrain from doing ill; for one all powerful reason, lest our children should copy our misdeeds; we are all too prone to imitate whatever is base and depraved.“

Here’s a goody:  “It is not easy for men to rise whose qualities are thwarted by poverty.“

Ever since my brother mentioned bread and circuses, that’s what’s been going through my mind – bread and circuses, bread and circuses. It has a nice ring, doesn’t it?  Seems to fit the times, as well.

Gobble, Gobble

It’s good old turkey day, but I’m not sure that we’re having turkey.  We’ll be heading to my husband’s parents’ house soon.  We’re bringing the stuffing, which is our tradition.  In years past, we’ve also provided the turkey, but Thanksgiving snuck up on everyone so quickly this year that no one had a definitive plan until a couple of days ago.  Thus, we have no idea what the main course is.  It doesn’t matter, though.  It’s always good.

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!

Creativity Is Not a Limited Resource

Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails (NIN) is experiencing a sticky wicket. Years ago, he got his record company (Universal) to allow him to post his master recordings on the NIN website so that fans could remix the music any way they liked. It was a grand experiment and worked very well, according to Reznor. The result is a new version of Year Zero called Y34RZ3R0R3M1X3D, which includes the master files from the original Year Zero and remixes from fans. The new album was released today, but the sticky wicket is that Universal won’t allow NIN to release the website that accompanies the album. Universal’s argument is that it would be breaking the very copyright rules it is suing Google and News Corp over. While Reznor is no longer with Universal, the company claims ownership of the master files. (Why they couldn’t have thought of this before allowing NIN to post the master files in the first place is beyond me.)

Universal has given NIN one option – host the masters as a band and take all the liability for copyright infringement. The company also wants NIN’s fans to sign user licenses wherein they agree not to use unauthorized materials. It’s not much of an option as far as Reznor is concerned and he and the band are trying to figure out a better solution.

The last time I checked the NIN website (two seconds ago), the comment count was up to 502. Amidst the swear words thrown at Universal, there are some well-thought suggestions. I have long been interested in copyright, both from the standpoint of being a writer and artist, and from the standpoint of protecting the copyright of others as a museum manager. To say this situation is difficult would be an understatement. The trouble all started when a legal clerk, with a few strokes of a pen, gave corporations the same rights as individuals in this country. Since then, corporations have lobbied strong and hard to write laws that benefit them over the rights of individuals. Copyright is one of those laws that favors corporations.

The best solution in this case, though the hardest to bear for NIN and fans, may be to let the website go. Let Universal have its masters. Now that the band is free of Universal’s control, Reznor & company can write their own rules for any new music and masters they create. Rather than waste its creative energies on fighting against a corporation, the band can turn its energy to making something new and posting it as it likes.

Creativity, like love, is a limitless resource. No matter what the band decides about its website, the music will continue, as will the band’s innovative approach to copyright issues.

NIN website with Trent Reznor’s letter*

*This appears to be a blog without an archive, so once this post disappears, you won’t be able to read it here. Instead, go to Wired magazine’s website, where they’ve posted Reznor’s letter in its entirety.

I Won’t Abide By It

Last night, Young Son #2 went to a local Assembly of God church with a friend. The church showed a movie where pretty much everyone went to hell for sinning and not repenting. An alcoholic went to hell for being an alcoholic. His son went to hell for bringing a gun to school and shooting two kids who were teasing him about his alcoholic father. One of the kids doing the teasing went to hell.

When Young Son came home, he was so freaked out by the movie that he said to me, “I want to try this ‘getting saved’ thing.” Whoa, Nellie!

He told me he wanted to get saved before he described the movie to me.

After I heard this, my blood began to boil. This is a tactic, a well-planned tactic that evangelical churches use to gain converts. They go right to children. They use the children of their churches to suck in friends for these “entertainment” nights, and once outside kids take part, they try to sign them up without parental involvement or consent. The same scenario happened with my daughter when she was younger, only it was an Alliance Church that tried this.

If there is one thing I can’t abide, it’s churches attempting to bypass my parental authority, especially churches that use fear and intimidation to get people to join. These same churches are very good at getting people to shut off their brains and play follow-the-leader. My primary goal in raising my children is exactly the opposite. I want them to be independent thinkers who know how to examine a thought, view or argument in a reasoned manner, not just fall for fear talk.

When I tucked Young Son in last night, I asked him to describe the movie. When he told me about all the “sinners” dying because they wouldn’t “repent,” I asked him, “How do you define sin?” In my estimation, there are actions that evangelical churches call sin that I don’t consider being sins at all – being gay, for example. I also asked Young Son if the entire school district in the movie went to hell for not stopping the teasing. In the course of our conversation, I told him that I grew up in a religion that rules by fear (Catholicism) and I did not want him to endure the same thing. While I resonate most with Unitarian Universalism, which believes in every individual’s right to a free and open search for meaning, I am not going to allow my son to get sucked into a religion that squelches that right before he has a chance to know his own mind.

Understand that I was vibrating with emotion during this conversation, utterly ticked that a church, of all things, would take advantage of my son. Young Son is normally a wheedler. He’ll wheedle me until I give in. My emotion and strong stance on the issue halted his wheedling. When I told him he would not be allowed to return to that church, he simply said, “Okay, Mom.”

A Mom’s gotta do what a Mom’s gotta do.

Calm Commentators

I have become so use to yelling, interrupting, rude commentators on news shows that I’m simply amazed when I see commentators who remain absolutely calm, even when discussing issues that should piss them off royally.  Keith Olbermann and his cadre of commentators are a perfect example.  The blood pressure cuff could go on and these people wouldn’t even flinch when it tightened around their arms.

I envy this ability and yet . . . .

When I was growing up, I was taught to be a demure, don’t-talk-back kind of person.  I’m not sure if this was simply familial, or if it was a generational thing.  We Gen Xer girls had Boomer mothers*, who were supposedly fighting for women’s rights, yet I grew up quiet as a titmouse, afraid to express myself.  My mother was no bra burner, however.  She was a good Catholic girl who wanted no more out of life than to grow up, get married, and have babies.  She wanted to have nine boy babies, so she could have a baseball team.  Any girls born would be cheerleaders.  As if!

Regardless of my upbringing, the older I get, the more vocal I get.  My hubby gets to hear me sputter with anger over some perceived slight, whether personal or a social injustice.  He’s afraid I’ll lash out and say something stupid.  I have to laugh at that a little because when he was younger, he definitely would express his anger, flipping people off or actually telling them to “eff-off.”  I can’t remember having ever done either to someone while I was in a rage.  My sputtering all occurs in private.  When it comes time for a response, I contain myself – although a little biting sarcasm tends to slip out.

What’s funny about all this is that my husband and I seem to have traded places.  He’s getting more mellow as he ages, while I’m getting more revved up.  I could go into the physical and sociological reasons for this, but I’m afraid I’d get a headache, so just fill in the blanks for why you think this is.

The more revved I get, the more I envy the ability of the calm commentators.  Somehow, they can manage to make their point without busting a temple artery.  And that’s a good thing.  Maybe eventually I’ll reach that perfect balance of expression.

*(For the most part, we had Boomer mothers – my husband’s mom is from the previous generation.)