Wednesday, September 02, 2015

Sabrina I. Pacifici Good to hear that “Why blogging still matters”

Kevin of Sat-chi fame saw an old ad yesterday for the America West’s Overland Express.
"Wanted:  Young, skinny, wiry fellows; Not over eighteen; Must be expert riders; Willing to risk death daily; Orphans preferred; Wages $25 per week."
Now that’s what I call a talent brief for bloggers!!!  dave allen glen hut-chins (sic) jang ford at al ...


“Tactics are what you do when there is something to do. Strategy is something you do when there is nothing to do.”

Chess Grandmaster Savielly Tartakower

Everybody's a critic. And everybody's in a rush to declare an opinion. But how one arrives there is often more interesting than the opinion itself... MEdia Dragons and the act of arrivals



In a sentiment he would later hone into his famous metaphor for resilience, Lee adds:
Nothing in the world is more yielding and softer than water; yet it penetrates the hardest. Insubstantial, it enters where no room is. It is so fine that it is impossible to grasp a handful of it; strike it, yet it does not suffer hurt; stab it, and it is not  wounded ...


Opinion | David Weinberger |Boston Globe: “…blogging went mainstream. Most media outlets now feature less formal, more personal columns either by their official columnists or by a cadre of writers who can’t be fitted into the limited space of a print newspaper or magazine. Even so, when the media refer to “bloggers,” they often mean unschooled amateurs unaffiliated with respectable publications — people who are obsessed with the trivial, full of hate, and unfamiliar with spellcheck. Yet delve into almost any field of research and you’ll find webs of bloggers joined by their common interests, whether it’s cooking, policy, or contemporary philosophy.

We bloggers are still there, connecting, learning from one another, and speaking in our own flawed human voices. The leading blogging site, WordPress.com, hosts 37 million of them, although not all are personal or still active. Tumblr claims 252 million blogs and 99 billion posts, mainly short form. We’re not noticed as much outside of our webs, and we are no longer considered a “phenomenon,” but we’re there. In fact, blogs now often are where the most interesting ideas are surfaced, argued, and appropriated into a discipline’s discourse. Unlike the output in scholarly journals and magazines, in these webs of blogs we get to see ideas emerging from conversation among people sharing what in the old days we’d take as early drafts. These webs allow participation by people regardless of credentials, enabling voices to rise to their own level of credibility…” [thanks to Bob Ambrogi – grateful to hear this message and share it via my Word Press blog – and also celebrate 13 years of blogging on beSpacific.]

“Autobiography is not in my line and my life has to the outside eye been uneventful.”
~ L

Thirteen years ago XIII (13) we started something kind of random at the suggestion of a publisher of the Double Dragon fame. It was called a BLOG.  Born in June 2002 is considered  almost a thousand years in the internet age ;-) Characters like Sabrina do make a difference and demonstrate how blogs can be a great roller coaster ride as it also keeps us off the streets ;-) Readers value stories and tidbit that focus on hard core ironies of our fragile lives ... Inside every sane, sober and honest reader is a schoolboy/girl waiting to shout Bottom!, if not something stronger, during the sermon. This is not a defense of anti-clericalism. Rather, it describes our essentially anarchic, pre-adolescent natures. Part of us remains forever in the third grade, when every suggestive word or sound elicits a snort. By nature we are divided, and no one is perpetually grown-up and well-mannered, or even civilized

 People want to be their best and motivate others to do the same, and the world will be a much better place because of it. 

When you're creating something for others to use or interpret or read consider showing it to the actual users - just five, different individuals at a time. The key is to learn from a variety of people The rule of Punj - Pet - 5: a quick way to be more effective 

“Art and unhappiness are unrelated. Because an artist sees the truth as a way out, and can do nothing, he is unhappy. Because he is seen seeing the way out, he is happy. And he often is willing to market his misery, sweep his madness onto a talk show and laugh at his own tears. Perhaps finally the greatest intelligence is an ability for joy.”

Leadership is one of the most pressing needs of our time. As the world we live in becomes more complex, and the diversity we represent uncovers a plethora issues needed to be addressed, we need people who can navigate us through the challenges and inspire us to greater things  Identifying great bloggers and leadership is an art and a science

“Sometimes it seems that what publishing is looking for, when they look to the Market to sell books by marginalized writers, is a single story. It is: this writer is *the* Dominican writer, or *the* Japanese writer, or *the* Sudanese writer that you should read right now. After all, we live in a culture that sells books with the tagline, if you read only one book this year.” LitHub we need more diverse bloggers and writers ...

Who are your heroes?  Three of Kevin's are JFK, Bob Dylan and Andy Warhol ...

The clichéd Hollywood movie has been long associated with an optimistic ending. You know, the one where the protagonist gets what he wants, even if it wasn’t what he was looking for in the first place. What’s interesting is that movies that end on a bright note often don’t leave you feeling entirely happy. It is sad movies, however, that can boost happiness by prompting people to reflect on their own lives in a more positive way. People are often drawn to sad movies when they’re sad, so perhaps there’s something in it Eudaemonia at the movies

One hundred years ago something changed dramatically the course of photography…the first Leica was born. Leica took the camera out of the studio and placed it into real life. We were able to see, to feel, to smell…thousands of moments. It became an extension of the eye of the photographer. Joy, pain, ordinary things, fear, losers, winners, misery… The most iconic images in history, even the ones that weren’t taken with a Leica, were taken because of the Leica The World  as we know it