There's No App for That

I first noticed it walking down the street toward my hotel in a strange city. On the corner across from my hotel was a nice looking Italian restaurant… maybe a place for dinner? I could see that the menu was posted at the front door.  Instead of walking over to look at the menu I went back to my hotel and looked it up on the IPad.

Eating breakfast by the kitchen window, the one with the outside thermometer attached, I open the weather app on my iPad to see what the temperature is.

I started keeping track: 

How many things do I do online that I don’t NEED to do online?  Things, that if I didn’t do online would give me, at a minimum, more human contact or more exercise.

And it's not only with computers and the internet. A friend told me he wanted a Super Remote for Christmas. It replaces all your remotes; you need never go looking for the “right remote” again.  So now, you not only don't have to get up to change the TV channel, but you don't even have to get up to look for the right remote.

Mobile devices can surely make you more efficient.  But aren’t there times when being efficient is not and should not be the primary goal?

Yes, of course. Which means that we each have to think about and set boundaries on what should be done with electronics and what is better done by moving an object through space and time.

So I’ve been trying to be aware of what I am doing when I open the computer. What is the task that I went here for? what  type of task is it? Fact finding, communicating, time wasting?  I  just name it.

I ask, is this the best way to complete this task? Is there a way to do this that would connect me with people more? Give me more exercise? Make me more focused?  It’s not much but it’s a start.

Here is an ode to movement done with technology: the best of both worlds.

November view

November brings me a lesson each year. And each year I have to re-learn it.

It’s that there is a world behind the leafy-green boundary that suddenly disappears when the leaves fall.  Ponds appear. Distant hills jump closer. Houses tucked back in the woods stand up. The effect is magnified by the sideways light, throwing a spotlight through the trees. It is a startling and humbling experience.

The November view and the July view are of the same landscape, yet completely different.  Can I remember this when talking with someone with whom I don’t agree? That we may very well be looking at the same landscape and seeing different things?

How Beautiful Are the Feet

Statue of Statue of Peace Leader Sri Chinmoy along Burke-Gilman Trail, Fremont, WA

How beautiful are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace, and bring glad tidings of good things. Isiah 52:7

Interaction

When we use the concept of "interactive media" exclusively in relation to computer-based media, there is the danger that we will interpret "interaction" literally, equating it with physical interaction between a user and a media object ... at the expense of psychological interaction.

The psychological processes of filling-in, hypothesis formation, recall, and identification, which are required for us to comprehend any text or image at all, are mistakenly identified with an objectively existing structure of interactive links.

Lev Manovich Language of New Media p 57

Photo by WadeB under Creative Commons License

Those Heineken Beer Songs

Those Heineken beer folks have a great way of picking out the odd tune, one that makes you look up from ignoring the ads and just grabs you.

Recently they resurrected a BollyWood extravaganza song from a 1965 movie, Jaan Pehechaan Ho. While not an unknown quantity (the YouTube video has more than 1,700,000 view) it was probably new to most Heineken imbibers and to many other Western audiences as well.

In their most recent ad the music is Love Letter by Clairy Browne & The Bangin' Rackettes
A rockin,  bruising deepthroated Clairy belts out “I’m gonna write what I want you to do to me in a letter”  The group got together in 2009. So this has to be a huge bump for them. In fact, under the video one fan comments:
Heineken is horrible beer but their commercial did lead to me buying this album :) So it's not a total loss.

And they are good.

Looking forward to the next Heineken discovery.

The Eternal in the Specific

film by Temujin Doran via Brain Pickings http://bit.ly/Hec8XR

The Joy of Books

Definitely  watch this in full screen mode.
Bookstore owner's notes:
After organizing our bookshelf almost a year ago (http://youtu.be/zhRT-PM7vpA), my wife and I (Sean Ohlenkamp) decided to take it to the next level. We spent many sleepless nights moving, stacking, and animating books at Type bookstore in Toronto (883 Queen Street West, (416) 366-8973). 
Everything you see here can be purchased at Type Books.
Grayson Matthews (http://www.graysonmatthews.com/) generously composed the beautiful, custom music. You can download it here: http://itunes.apple.com/album/awakenings-single/id496796623
But none of it could have been done without all the volunteer hands who shelved and reshelved books all night, every night.