Ghost Ride the Prius

“Oh man, I went to the Too Short show last night. So hyphy man, so hyphy. You should come by some time and we’ll ghost ride the Prius.” —stuffwhitepeoplelike

Achieving Nirvana at Quizno's

Yesterday, I watched Jill Bolte Taylor's TED talk about her stroke, and about left/right brain functions. Then I walked down the street to buy a cookie. I tried to experience the world as she described in her talk, and it worked! I enjoyed the buzz of human activity in the crowded, noisy sandwich shop in a way I have seldom enjoyed it before.

I usually “zone out” by retreating into specific thoughts, like holding my breath and diving underwater (computer programmers are very good at this). In fact, I usually experience the world that way—I am seldom on the surface, noticing my surroundings. It makes me very quick at logical reasoning (useful or not), and very bad at experiencing the world of my senses. I think you would be surprised how little I notice of the world around me if you could step inside my thoughts!

During my walk, I managed to “zone in” and float on the surface - noticing only the shapes and colors of writing or the sounds of talking. It was a very interesting experience. I understood for the first time how some people find being in a crowd energizing—when the sounds, the music, the din of overlapping conversations were not an unwelcome distraction to be blocked out, they became a welcome presence of activity, of the energy of life happening around me. It was fascinating, and oddly relaxing.

---

I realized during that walk that I risk information addiction. Or left-brained, language-based concept addiction. And that I need nature—somehow the colors, shapes, and and movement of natural things are calming—almost like they seep in through the eyes and ears and gently press the "degauss button" on my brain. Or perhaps it's more like turning the etch-a-sketch upside down and letting a thousand tiny pebbles wipe away the lines and figures.

Nerdfotainment

I can't always take RandsInRepose, but sometimes he's dead on. Nerdfotainment

TwitterSnarking

verb: to make snarky comments on twitter or other messaging media about a meeting, while the meeting is in progress.

Thanks!

To whomever the kind soul is that found my ID badge and Marta pass and came to my office and turned them in, thanks!

Stuff White People Like

Stuff White People Like

More Obama Pushing

I haven't watched Lawrence Lessig's video on why he supports Obama yet, but I have read the transcript.

I totally agree with Lessig. I think that electing Obama would send the strongest signal abroad that we regret the path America has been on, and want to change. I don't think rewarding the Republicans with another four years would send that message. And while I think she'd make a pretty good president, and that it's about time we elected a woman (50% of the population, 0% of the presidents, WTF??), to me Clinton seems like more of the same, not something new.