Never explain -- your friends do not need it and your enemies will not believe you anyway.
Elbert Hubbard (1865-1915)

My friends are a source of joy. Their support overwhelms me with joy and I feel privileged to have the friends that I do. I often get drawn into myself, my own thoughts, my own world of mind. So much so that sometimes I feel lost and often alone. Yet, I still manage to have friends which see above my shortcomings, who accept the person I am, and come willingly to share adventures with me. It is to them that I owe much. Without the knowledge, in my heart, that there are those around me who (although they know not the direction we are headed) stand by my side, it would be near impossible to continue. It's difficult to see myself where I am heading, but I have around me a shield of trust. It enables me, it protects me, it keeps me strong.

To my friends, I owe all.
- posted by the Tourist @ 20:29UTC - want to

 
The Medium is the Message...

Yes, it's a one-liner taken from Marshall McLuhan and there is much more to the story behind that line than I am able to provide, but it resonates with me now as I type out my blog. What does it mean to have a blog? To communicate (am I communicating if noone is reading?) through this distant electronic format, as some have said, "Screaming into the void!" By placing my writing in this space, I've chosen a medium which is dictating the way in which I will interact with people. I've distanced myself from any direct contact with others. I exist as an idea in an electronic world. To the readers, I am a vision in their own minds. My words make some image based on the biases of each individual readers perceptions of what I write. It occurs to me that this is yet another way in which the distortion-of-perception occurs with the blog. I originally coined the term for my blog, because I felt that what I wrote would be my own distortion of events or ideas as I perceived them. Now, there is a whole new level to which distortion applies! Once again, I find myself up against the idea of communication itself and how messy it is.

But back to my original idea, the medium. What is its message, what does it say about the individuals who use it? I have a feeling that its creating distance between individuals, that we are losing the ability to speak with one another directly. We require an interface through which we speak. In my mind, this is not a happy situation. I envision the breakdown of communities, we no longer know who our neighbour is, we are individual ships floating haphazardly in a vast ocean. That's the pessimist.

And now, we introduce the optimist. I'm new to the blog, I'm experimenting with it myself, but from what I've seen, there is another community that exists and its larger than the eye can see. Its incredibly interconnected, there is dialogue, relationships are built and some I'm sure die out or pass away. But if you spend any time looking around you will quickly see, as I have, that there are bonds being formed just as any other community may have them. Sure, the medium dictates that the bond is different, but it exists none the less. I'm surprised, or rather simply naive, I was unaware of the multiple ways in which community can form. I've been exposed to something new, and its a little strange, its mysterious, but then so are the relationships I have in any other context, in any other medium. I've joined a community, to which I still don't know all the rules (do any exist?), but I'm communicating more now than I did when I wrote in my own black-books!
- posted by the Tourist @ 21:35UTC - want to

 
"Jack of all trades, Master of none"

It's a derogatory term, it's meant to point out that knowing a little about a lot is second-rate to knowing a lot about a little. More specifically it points to the dilemma of generalization versus specialization. Currently, in today's world, our society tends to look up to those specialists, the ones who know a lot about a little. Society admires the person who is ultra-driven, dedicated, to an almost obsessive nature about one thing. It tends to bring material wealth and recognition to the individual. It brings adulation, envy, it gives them power. It provides a status in society which I don't feel is necessarily warranted. Ultimately, it's narrow-minded, it reeks of arrogance.

On the other hand, to be a generalist is to keep one's eyes open. To see all, or much, of the world. To attempt a synthesis of divergent thoughts, divergent realities, to attempt a holistic view. It means that one can feel comfortable with many varied topics, but not necessarily to be the expert in any one thing. Are times changing? Is the generalist about to receive their due? I can't really say, but it's worth a thought. It keeps the dream alive, that it is good to dabble in many things, to think about many different topics, to keep oneself fresh by constantly searching for new and unseen horizons.

Expand your horizons, break the wall down, surprise your senses, go have a look at Creative Generalist.
- posted by the Tourist @ 21:28UTC - want to

 
Exhibitionist, Voyeur...

What have I become? Has the blog changed me, or has it allowed me to exercise a part of myself which was previously hidden or unexposed? Am I an exhibitionist, or a voyeur, or a bit of both? For to start one's own blog most likely means that one has been examining the work of others and I for one am in that camp. Once I hit upon the idea of starting my own blog, I had to look at what others in the cyber-world were writing themselves. And look I did! I found myself randomly opening blogs from the recently updated list on Blogger to jumping from link to link in the individual blogs reading lists. Sometimes I'd jump to a blog and before it's even finished opening, I hit the back button to find something more to my taste. What do I like? It seems the utilitarian blog hits my fancy. Something with a good written word on it, but no flashing graphics, unsightly colours, or hard to read fonts. Then the writing itself, not too childish, open enough to seem inviting, but not too personal. It's voyeurism, of that I'm sure. I've got desires, ideas of what I want to see and find myself clicking away in search of the right hit.

But what am I looking at? The stories of other peoples lives, the tidbits that people want to share, the 'other' side to many. For it seems the blog is a way out for most. A place where some anonymity is guaranteed, somewhere a person can expose themselves in a way which for most of us is impossible in the real world. It's an experiment, but what is being tested? The exhibitionist tendency, the desire to let others peek into the thoughts and desires of oneself. All of us who blog know that there is some chance that an unknown person may find our writing, may comment on what we have put down in this ephemeral electronic medium. Some start out with a desire to reach everyone right away, but I'd guess that most of us would rather start out small. We invite the ones close to us, the trusted few, to view our writing and then let what may happen, happen of its own due course. I toy with the exhibitionist within me, I slowly expose myself, in an ever unfurling line of black on white, the exposure of myself through my words. Have I exposed myself fully, have I exposed the true me, or have I only exposed the smallest sliver of my soul? Time will tell, but an exhibitionist I am, if only in secret.
- posted by the Tourist @ 21:38UTC - want to

 
-from the foreword to Current Topics in Radiation Research, Vol. V,
ed. by Michael Ebert & Alma Howard.
Published in 1969 by North-Holland Publishing Company

Foreword

There has been an enormous increase in the volume of published scientific information during the past two decades, and the tide is still rising. New techniques of listing, coding, classifying, abstracting and distributing information have been developed, and have improved efficiency in making the printed word available to research workers. But no substitute has been found for the processes which go on within an interested, informed and intelligent mind - processes of selection, digestion, organization and synthesis. It is the aim of this series of books to make available to our readers the fruits of those processes, in the belief that the pictures transmitted in this way are sharper and clearer than any mechanical collage, however complete. For this reason we choose authors who can speak with authority, and we ask them to give a personal view of their subject, and to build it up from what seems to them to be relevant and interesting, without the obligation of an attempt at comprehensiveness.
The success of the series is due to the high quality of our authors and their articles, for which we are most grateful: but also, we believe, to this absence of constraint.
The Editors

I think this foreword could apply to any thinking, contemplating person on the planet. Speak with authority about your interests from a personal view, using what evidence you think is relevant and interesting, without an obligation at comprehensiveness. Don't we all do this with respect to that which interests us? Its not specific to any learned person, but to anyone who takes the time to contemplate their own interests.

What was true in 1969 still applies today. Information can be listed, classified, and distributed, but until it enters the mind of an individual it does little. Information must be selected, digested, organized, and synthesized; that is assimilated by the individual. Information that has not been taken in is nothing more than random letters and numbers on a page. Again, as with art, information can exist only between, at a minimum, the creator and a receptive individual. Information and art exist not in a vacuum but in a relationship between people. There is the created intent and the assimilated idea; which are not necessarily the same thing. Communication and its fundamental issue, how to properly convey the intended purpose?
- posted by the Tourist @ 21:11UTC - want to

 
Fear and Laziness...

I've heard these two words a lot lately. Must be due to New Year's and the whole resolution thing. What are we capable of? Apparently a lot if we don't allow fear and laziness to interfere with our well-laid plans. It's fear and laziness that derails our vision of ourselves from becoming the reality that we live. Is this true? Am I truly lazy? What am I afraid of?

So in another vein, I also came across this in my random travels through the written word. If money wasn't an object, what would you do with yourself? Would you be living the same life you are living now? If not, why then accept the life that you currently have? Is it because money is lacking or are you too afraid and/or too lazy to chase the dream.

I think it's true that money (or rather lack of) is an impediment to the dream I aspire to, but on the other hand, if I really look at it, I'm not achieving what I want with my life mostly because of fear and/or laziness. Money is the problem keeping me from doing it right now, but that is actually an excuse to tell myself, "I cannot begin now, not until...." Until what? In truth, I'm too lazy to push myself harder, spend some time on my dreams. I think about them an awful lot, but I don't seem to be doing much of what I want, what I dream to do. Or is it fear? I'm scared of failure, of not being good enough, of not being successful. I'm just too lazy to fight the feelings of inadequacy.

I've got a lot of life left to live. But if I'm not actively pursuing what I want, then I'm just breathing, metabolizing, consuming precious resources for nothing. There's a line in a movie somewhere, goes something like this, "You either get busy living, or get busy dying." It's time to live, that means being proactive. A little bit, everyday can get me a long way along the path of my desires, just begin the movement forward...one step...do something right now! (Note: Does this sound like a Nike ad?)
- posted by the Tourist @ 14:28UTC - want to