Lilian Nattel's Blog, page 48
March 30, 2011
Internet and Sunshine
Michelle's thoughtful post got me thinking and rather than expound in a lengthy comment, I decided to post myself.
The subject is technology versus a pause: to simply be, noticing, smelling roses, sipping coffee, watching raindrops, or standing in the sun.
I spend hours at my computer aside from writing, online in the blogosphere, reading articles, communicating in assorted netty ways. When the internet is down for any reason, I check every few minutes to see if it's back up. I feel odd, out of touch, isolated, hampered.
But I wonder what it is about the internet that takes me away from many other things I love to do, and take me away it does. Part of that is a universal experience. I think we all know that the internet does something to time. It hasn't been scientifically proven, but there is a warp in the space-time continuum when you're online. You look at the clock and a minute later look at it again and several hours have passed, more at night.
It's also a universal experience, at least in our society, to feel guilty about pausing. Sitting at a computer is doing something, it is busy and productive looking. To pause, look, consider, be, is considered wasteful. To disdain it is the Protestant-become- American legacy of the work ethic and financial success, proof of God's approval.
For me there is all that and this too: I don't have computer baggage. When I was a kid, computers took up whole rooms at universities and government institutions. There were no pc's, there was no world wide web. Nobody told me I was no good at it, didn't deserve it or shouldn't waste my time with it. That is true about nothing else in my life.
Absolutely every other thing, writing a book, sewing a seam, skating around an arena, swimming a lap, taking a photo, drawing a picture, reading a book, hammering a nail, baking a cake, choosing a nice shirt, carries with it memories of criticism, threats and punishment.
For me the pause is time out of the past and time in to the present. The challenge is to carry that time-in back to all the non-computer related activities that make life peaceful and pleasurable. We are here to do that which makes our hearts sing. Online, offline, I don't think it matters. It is the song that matters, and the purpose of the pause is to hear again the tune.
Filed under: Personal Tagged: internet and life's purpose
politicians afraid of art, free country or what?
Maine gov removes mural, best satirical poem on similar by E.B. White http://ow.ly/4pvxK
Filed under: Miscellany
how Gone With the Wind went from grocery list to library vault
Mitchell worked on the novel, which was originally to be called either "Tomorrow Is Another Day" or "Tote the Weary Load," in fits and starts from 1925 to 1935. She wrote on blank newsprint and composed the book out of order, beginning with the last chapter and picking up other sections as her mood suited her. The finished chapters she put in individual manila envelopes, sometimes with grocery lists scrawled on them, and stored in a closet. Very few people saw them or even knew what she was doing.
via nytimes.com
Delightful story about writing and publishing, whether you are a GWTW fan or not.
Filed under: Miscellany
this plant is a friend to the ticks that carry Lyme disease
The prevalence of ticks infected with the Lyme disease–causing spirochete (Borrelia burgdorferi) is greater in areas with Japanese barberry than areas without.
"Deer eat everything but barberry, and because they don't eat barberry, they're weeding out forests. They're helping promote the invasive species," explains Jeff Ward, chief scientist for the Department of Forestry and Horticulture at the Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station (CAES).
via scientificamerican.com
Japanese barberry is a popular plant because it's hardy and drought resistant. Unfortunately, it's an invasive species that encourages the flourishing of Lyme carrying ticks. Click on the link above for the full story.
Filed under: Miscellany
March 29, 2011
Jean Auel Interview
6th book in her clan of cave bear series is out; it's taken 30 yrs. Video interview on research etc http://ow.ly/4oEr4
Filed under: Miscellany
March 28, 2011
Random Picture Taken with New Camera
In celebration of working with Random House Canada, I got my first dslr camera, a Nikon d3100 with a Sigma 18-200 lens. Just to see if it worked, and if I liked it (yes!!!!!!), I took some random shots around the house.
click to enlarge
I can't wait to go out for a ramble with it.
Filed under: Personal Tagged: photography
ode to goddess of beer
"you are the one who pours out the…beer…[like] the onrush of Tigris and Euphrates" 1800 bce http://ow.ly/4o9y6
Filed under: Miscellany
March 27, 2011
was the U.S. civil war avoidable?
Lamenting the horrors of the war, [David] Goldfield computes its total monetary cost at around $6.7 billion in 1860s currency, and asserts that if "the government had purchased the freedom of four million slaves and granted a 40-acre farm to each slave family, the total cost would have been $3.1 billion, leaving $3.6 billion for reparations to make up for a century of lost wages. And not a single life would have been lost." But this computation proceeds from some dubious assumptions.
Goldfield makes this argument in America Aflame: How the Civil War Created a Nation. While the reviewer disputes some of Goldfield's conclusions, I can't help but think how this is applicable to the cost of war today, and how much could be done to change resentments into positive engagement by putting military spending to better use in helping people.
Filed under: Interesting Tagged: lessons of history
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