sj's Longest Now [v.1]

It was another endless day.  Some people hate Mondays; I hate
Fridays more.  I rushed to finish, not only to be done by sundown,
but also to make it home and clean up in time for the music I was
assured would be taking place.  E-flat, one of my oldest friends
and twins, hangs out with some of the coolest musicians in the
country.  Every now and then some of them stop by to say hello.

Tonight, two people who play in a band with her (they’ll be at the Burren tomorrow
from 5-7pm; go see them!) and an old friend from H-town showed up to
jam.   Two more filled out a string sextet, and we all made merry until midnight.

“[One] little, [one] big” — so goes the title of an old Irish air by Turlough O’Carolan, from an ancient legend. 
By the time I thought to record the session, and gave up looking for an
external mic, this is what was being played.  The sextet had just
broken up, and we were down to duets.  This recording doesn’t
begin to do the music  justice, but perhaps captures a taste of
its spirit. 

Si Bheag Si Mhor :  From our house tonight  |  Planxty‘s fabulous recording from the 70’s.

I’ve been thinking a lot about the best children’s book ever.  Not that one with demons and archangels and archaeopteryx hanging out in the museum post-twilight, bathing in the fountains and gathering plastic four-leaf clovers
from the astroturf.  No, I  mean the one with the astonishing
string of meaningless, mundane coincedences leading to a Really Bad Day.

Well, strange things have always happened to me, particularly ever since a fateful conversation with Sarah Ettling.  Often things so strange that I would never share them with other people
because, well, why bother them with meaningless impossibilities? 
I’m still taking flack for showing people the disturbing smiley-face biscuit that turned up under my hood the night my battery mysteriously died in the STAR market parking lot.  I should have thrown it away.

Or so I thought at the time.  I’m feeling more open towards the world these days, and towards humanity, and see only humour in their very unlikeliness; perhaps you will, too.  What unlikely things have happened to you so far this year?  (read more…)

I was checking up on a particular stat for this blog, and accidentally visitied “…/stoats” instead of “/stats“, and was disappointed to find nothing there.  Dave Winer, take note: the next revision of Manila should include stoat functionality.

2. I know what you’ve all been wondering.  What will the future
bring, how will it be tamed, without the guidance of young innovative
leaders?  Luckily, philanthropist Klaus Schwab foresaw this problem,
and envisioned a thousand points of light to address it.  One
thousand one hundred and eleven avatars, that is, in the form of  Young Global Leaders
devoted to five-year terms of participating in initiatives and
activities, supporting and respecting others, interacting and
collaborating to initiate projects, striving for consensus but
accepting diversity of opinion. 

Each of these avatars gains various attributes upon successful completion of this task:

1. + Leadership (through interaction with mentors and peers)
2. + Insight (The best insights into key global challenges and
   underlying forces…  “[you are now] equipped to understand the
   world much better”).   
3. + Understanding (great understanding of different cultures, people, and stakeholders of global society)
4. + Social Status (Belonging to the most powerful and exciting global network, continuing on as an alumnus)
5. + Influence (through meeting those who shape the political, social and intellectual global agenda)  
6. + Personal brand (part of a life-enhancing brand)

This is an ongoing quest.  ~225 avatars are chosen every
year for a five-year commitment.  Any global player from the
High-tech, Corporate management, Government, Media, Arts or Academia
classes is eligible.

This crazy guy from Chiba spliced together a theme song for the next wikipedia event. You all have to listen to this… unless you’re allergic to Monty Python. First one to correctly guess who’s saying “fabulous!” gets a cigar.

There’s been a big hullabaloo about credibility and blogging this past week, sparked by a recent Armstrong Williams/Ketchum/Department of Education scandal.  Right on its heels came a detailed post about blogger ethics by Zephyr Teachout, and publicity of this week’s WebCred conference here at Berkman.  Subsequent articles (in the WSJ,
et al.) have tried to compare Williams’s lack of disclosure with Kos‘s
partial disclosure, generally to the Blogger’s discredit. 
Contributors to the melee include pro- and
anti-disestablismentarian bloggers and journalists (look how un/conflicted the interests of bloggers are!  Clearly they can/cannot be trusted!), politicians buttressing and bashing Howard Dean(for-DNC-chair) (look how clean/corrupt his campaign was!), political bloggers for and against Kos (look what a blog-god/whore he is!),  campaign groupies for and against  (look how open and moral / calculating and vituperative she is!), and even more restrictive subsubgroups, such as bloggers for and against the Berkman Center (look at what actively idealistic people / kitten-eating cyborgs they are!).

Someone I know has a great picture of the lot of them eating kittens, but is holding back in the hopes of blackmailing a free parking spot out of John Palfrey.  And for the record, I think every last one of the individuals and institutions mentioned in the previous paragraph is simultaneously decent and human. Yes, even the DoE.

I’ve found over the years that many otherwise well-bred people were
never introduced to Thornton Burgess as children, and haven’t yet
rectified that oversight.  So I would like to take a quiet moment,
in the middle of the night, to direct you all to the works of that
master.  If you know anyone between the ages of 2 and 12,
recommend said works to them post-haste! 

I am regularly reminded of Burgess these days, and my favorite
characters like the Little West Winds and Sammy Jay, because having
once used
“Thornton Burgess” as my name in a throwaway registration (that later
got linked, through a quirk of evil information-selling, with one of my
current active accounts),
I now regularly get spam with one or both of those incomparable names
in the title.  How sweet it is to be loved by spam…

And the world’s best procrastination tool
is in lockstep with it, interleaving ever so subtly with the end of
reading period.  Evil and wonderful all at once.  We’ll be in
Building 26 this year; give me a holler if you’re passing by.