blah blah Blog

So much has happened this week, but not the kind of thing I blog about. What can I say about the election that hasn't been said already? What can I share about people I meet, people I know, possibility all around, imminent...

I'm flattered that Todd from the Legion of Tech just asked me to do a video bit for Ignite. There's not enough time to do something really cool, though. I'll see what I can wrangle up.

In preparation for an exciting week, then, let's have a poem.

Portrait of a Woman, by Wislawa Szymborska

She should be willing to please.
To change, so that nothing should change.
It's easy, impossible, hard, worth trying.
Her eyes are if need be now deep blue, now gray,
dark, playful, filled for no reason with tears.
She sleeps with him like some change acquaintance, like his one and only.
She will bear him four children, no children, one.
Naive yet giving the best advice.
Weak yet lifting the weightiest burdens.
Has no head on her shoulders but will have.
Reads Jaspers and ladies' magazines.
Doesn't know what this screw is for and will build a bridge.
Young, as usual young, as always still young.
Holds in her hands a sparrow with a broken wing,
her own money for a journey long and distant,
a meat-cleaver, poultice, and a shot of vodka.
Where is she running so, isn't she tired?
Not at all, just a bit, very much, doesn't matter.
Either she loves him or has made up her mind to.
For better, for worse, and for heaven's sake.

Twitter

So, I know I was skeptical about Twitter six weeks ago, but now I'm really excited about it.

Firstly, I had no idea that so many cool things were happening every night in this city. I follow some really interesting people, and they are always inviting everyone to these amazing events and screenings and lectures, and if you aren't there, they tweet the event and let you in on what you missed. Same for people who aren't in this city- I can find out what's happening at a design lecture, a steampunk convention, an open-source seminar, and a political rally all at the same time, all in real time.

Secondly, it is staggering how fast things happen. Twitter knows about current events faster than Google does, and the moment something happens it spreads throughout the twitterverse, and everyone knows about it. It's funny, because I'll read something on Twitter, turn around and mention it to a coworker, and a couple minutes later it will have been retweeted to them- if it's good, or funny, or important, it makes it all the way through the community in record time. The community talks about things that are of tremendous local impact or interest that don't show up in the mainstream media, or show up hours or days later. I've always liked the speed of the transfer of information on the internet, but twitter is exponentially faster.

Finally, I appreciate being able to connect with people either actually (like all the Legion of Tech folks), or passively (like I follow Hodgman or WarrenEllis). I get insights into who they are, what they think, how they live- it's very cool.

So come find me on twitter (@rvillon), if you haven't already. I'll try to keep my updates funny or important or both.

My next topic: creativity blocks

After talking with some folks at the Legion of Tech the other night (I hope they pick me- I sent Dawn a massive email that may have been overkill), I've been dwelling more on the whole issue of why (it seems to me) the technology industry is so much more creative than the entertainment industry.
I have some thoughts on the subject, but it's mostly theorizing on my part. I'd like to do some research on creative blocks and creative workplaces, and maybe try to frame up a someday-in-the-distant-future Ignite talk.

If anyone has any thoughts on the subject, or maybe just have lunch or a drink to chat about it, let me know.

WhereCamp

I'm looking forward to WhereCamp in the morning. The unstructured nature of the event appeals to me, and I'm looking forward to meeting some of the tweeters I follow. I'm really interested in the work of the Legion of Tech, and am considering getting more involved in that community.

I haven't blogged much this week, partly because I'm trying very hard to finish Pasquale's Angel, which... well, here's the thing. It's a library book, so I feel some sense that I have to finish it and return it, but I'm having a terrible time getting into it, so it's taking me a long time. I've been thinking a lot about the future and
community and technology lately, so this time period just isn't speaking to me right now.

I'm probably not going to articulate this very well, but here goes- I've spent a lot of my life trying to get to this moment, to reach these goals, to be sitting here. And the past year or so I've been asking myself what comes next, what's the next goal? Generally when I feel that sense I just probe my inclinations and, after a lot of introspection, come up with the next thing, with a plan I can commit to. And I've consistently chosen this inward-looking path because when I looked around, no one seemed to have a better idea. Believe me, I've wanted to badly to meet someone with a better idea. But I haven't, so I keep on just moving forward and figuring it out as I go. At the cre8 conference, I was thinking to myself about the old adage "when the student is ready, the master appears." So often I wished that were true for me- I've never met a master. Instead, I keep finding that when I'm ready, I become the master.

Now there's a tremendous urge coming to and through me to envision the future, to bend myself toward the Next Thing. And yet I have a sense that this future is something I can't envision myself, that this challenge involves creating a collaborative future, that this future is something I have to create and move toward with other people.

So I keep looking around and asking myself who those people are. Who do I want to create the future with? What community can I link with and think with? I've been asking myself who the best thinkers are, where are they, what do they do, how does one come to know them? And technology is an integral part of it- the people who are creating technology right now are also the people who are making the future, and we'll be living in it whether we want to or not. But often I feel like those people have a kind of limited perspective- that we make new gadgets because we can and they're cool, but we're not thinking about empowering and respecting the individual. We're not thinking about, for example, eliminating poverty. We jump on the change bandwagon, but it's not meaningful change, mindful change. The thinking comes afterward.

All this is a long way of saying that I'm on the change bandwagon. I feel myself changing, and new doors open and close as something turns within me. I also have the sense that it will be a good thing to be a generalist, that I'll finally have something to do with my roving probing mind that never specialized in any one thing.

I want to close with a post that I've blatantly robbed from the Something Awful forums.

I run slow

I work in the social services, and a lot of the people we work with have a lot of regrets. I've asked our case managers to have their clients come out and watch me run. I run so slow, time run backwards. As I waddle along, your life runs in reverse. Scars becomes wounds become chances to exercise better judgement. I run slow.

Like most people, I enjoy running in the mornings, before it gets to hot. Unlike most people, I've been pushed over by a squirrel.

I run slow. Sometimes when I am running, I think of those zen fountains that absorb a drip drip drip of water down a bamboo tube before finally tipping over and dumping their contents into a pool. Each step I take is another drip. I think, that fountain would call me a pussy.

I run slow. But I know where I have been.

Six months ago, I didn't run.

Six months ago, I had heartburn bad enough to keep me from sleeping through the night. Six months ago, I felt like I needed to go to sleep at 2pm. And six months ago, running felt impossible.

I run slow, and I have ways to go. But I can sleep. I feel alive. I can run two, slow, miles. Slowly.

Sometimes I get discouraged. I compare where I am to where other people are. But all that matters is where I am compared to where I was.

Once something good becomes something you are going to do for the rest of your life, the pace becomes less important. I know that my drip drip drip will amount to that deluge, eventually. Someday I will run 3 miles, slowly.