Technology: Who Needs It?

Over the years, history has shown that things change. As the old saying goes: "Those who do not learn from history will be doomed to repeat their history course, or something like that."

The Pilgrims learned that popcorn could be made without a microwave oven.

Pioneers learned that you got more wet in an uncovered wagon.

Mountain climbers have learned that you stay warmer in synthetics layers with down insulation compared to tweed sportcoats and knickers.

What I'm getting at here is that into every generation there comes a point when someone comes up with a better idea. They may be laughed at in the beginning ("the world is flat..") then later there comes enlightening ("the world is round and flat"), then later more funny enlightening ("the world is shaped like a basketball"..."what's a basketball"), the later a lightbulb glimmers ("you can bounce this thing and throw it onto the barn"), and the next thing you know revisionist historians are saying that the world is oblong and that Pilgrims didn't use microwave ovens.

Then along comes the iPhone.

Daydreaming in the CCU

A light day in the Critical Care Unit can leave some dull stretches of time. Everything in here can change in an instant, and suddenly, you may need to be in several places at the same time when over the past hour you may have been looking through 6 month old journals trying to fill the time.

Time goes by quickly when you are busy. How is this related to the Space-Time continuum? Can you actually go back in time if you are really lazy? If you put a group of lazy people on a train and an equal group of busy, time-pressed workaholics on a train moving at the same speed, which would arrive first? (This is a trick question due to the lazy engineer and train staff which would not take off or arrive on time.)

Well enough of this...my pager has gone off and I need to get back in the game. Nate will likely wish time would move quickly while making his transatlantic passage tomorrow from Paris to Tupelo International. If only the flight would take less than the charge duration of an Ipod. We're thankful for the fine tour operator who has personally planned and executed this great trip (Anna). The heavily travelled skateboard will touch down tomorrow here after ripping it up in Barcellona and Marseille and perhaps in Paris as well. Hope the camera makes it back with proof.

Another page from the beeper. What do they think? Can I just stop typing and answer the phone. There are priorities! Code blue! Yikes! Oh, I'm awake again from my daydream and my pager has not gone off at all. It is raining outside. Now I know that I am actually asleep and dreaming to type during a daydream.

Viva la Lacoste

Back from a weeklong adventure in Lacoste, France. This was a delightful time that despite being 7 time zones away, was outside of space and time continuua due to student end of quarter schedules. (ie; sleep was not an issue for them anyway).

Squeezed some time in with Anna and hung out while work was being done some of the time. I explored the surrounding villages and walked the little cobblestone rue. This is a stunning place which inspires you to produce art. The village of Lacoste has over 300 residents and the art school occupies or owns about 1/4 of the town structures. Everything is historically much older than much of anything in the US. Although the Provencial lifestyle in slower, the students are in high gear. There is alot of interaction and collaboration. Problems arise and ideas come from all directions. This school arrangement is alot like a retreat. Everyone is immersed in the work including the staff who share most meals with the students and may be found well after midnight in the studios or labs helping or just hanging out. They are certainly aware if students are working or not since they are always around.

Anna was able to meet me at the airport initially and help me find my way across the countryside and navigate all the roundabouts. We stopped to eat on the way.

We vistited some great places together over the week.

Got to spend time also with some Hillary and Sharin, as well as some of the others learning there such as John and Helen, and faculty members Robert and Andy.

For daily summaries of the trip, posted from Lacoste, please refer to my Xanga site.

When is trash not trash?

A daily ritual in this country is to discard items into a trash recepticle. As the container fills, it is then consolidated into a larger can which is placed in a location for the local sanitation department to pick up and remove in a truck. Aside from the general ecological discussion which could begin at this point, there are some items that are verbotten to remove.

Have you ever tried to throw away an old garbage can? Or just the lid for that matter? If you place this at the street, even with a note of explanation, you will find it empty and at the roadside the next day. Even if your trash can was stolen and the lid only left behind, you will find it frustrating to get rid of the lid. To investigate this process once and for all, I located an early manuscript from Roman times. These manuscripts are in a vulgar Latin (trash talk), but refer to a secret and solemn ceremony that these apprentice garbage workers were subjected to before becoming journeyman trashmen. One vow that was taken at that time was to always separate garbage from the can and leave the can. Unfortunately, this meant that the can itself would never be removed, simply emptied.

The best strategy is to take that old trash can to one of the new "Cans to Tans" centers popping up in metropolitan areas (especially on the west coast). For every old can you bring in, you get tanning center credit. What could be more beautiful and Earth friendly? Your old can will be matched with a new home, likely a home that could not have a can of their own. If a new home is not found, the can may be released into the wild (a metropolitan alley in NYC or Chicago).

For more info refer the Canstotans website or Recycling: May the circle be unbroken (a soon to be released throwaway journal.)

A quoi penses-tu?

Je ne sais pas. French is clearly a language that had to stem from the original tower of Babel fiasco. At one moment, everyone understands what is being said, and then the next, nobody can understand (but someone is arrogant about it and already has an attitude.) The language has a pretty sound to it when spoken, but an amazing amount of the written letters and sometimes whole words disappear when pronounced. Phonetic pronunciation keys look like yet another language, unrelated to the written French. An additional feature I look forward to when visiting France is the local dialects. I'm so happy that we have no local dialects in the United States. So here, to respond to the initial inquiry "what are you thinking?" The response "I don't know" will vary right smart little up chair in the north or yonder down south.