anoesis - word of the day

\an-oh-EE-sis\ , noun;

A state of mind consisting of pure sensation or emotion without cognitive content.

Is this where my mind goes when while walking the dogs I suddenly realize I have no awareness as to the status of them doing their business?  I think I call it LOST.  Is this more of a tweet like thought than a blog post. Or would the tweet be : Have you been to anoesis lately, if so what did you find there?

On my way to anoesis yesterday I discovered the story of stuff. and made some creativity connections.
I wonder where getting Lost will take me today?  In the interim, I hope to read the blogs here and comment with the intention to increase digitial literacy (theirs and mine).

AARP --- Service Essay

I was pretty sure no other Senior would be submitting this topic for the Essay on Service for Create The Good because it is tremendously challenging to get folks to even understand what Community Access TV is.  So this is what I have been doing and will continue to do unless something better comes my way. I might as well share this since I took the time to prepare it.  I look forward to voting on the top 7 of 1800 submissions to Create The Good.
~~~
Volunteering is now Full-Time: Helping Community TV Make a Difference for those Making a Difference

In 2011, I was transformed from a volunteer community media administrator type lynchpin (advisory boards, bylaws, policies) into a front-line volunteer: discovering, capturing, producing and sharing the stories of other lynchpin Seniors who have kept the engines of service and democracy going in my town. Unplanned early retirement was the trigger for this change. I now have the flexibility to Make TV for my Community Access Station.

From Janice the Grange Fair coordinator for 50 plus years to the two couples keeping the Wallingford Historical Society tours going and bells ringing on the 4^th of July since 1962; to Nancy whose Community Dinner idea some thirty years ago is critical for these times; to Rich who opened the DryDock Sober Café, turning his retirement into helping others do better with what he struggled with – addiction; to the Holy Joes’ Café, getting coffee to Service Chaplains, a story that was to end with the end of the wars; to Cheryl’s Soup Kitchen et.al ministry Masters’ Manna whose clients tripled…to Citizen Mike a local commentary show that is now an integral part of the community conversation: I have been part of getting these, and other stories, told digitally.

All of these passionate 55 and much over folks, doing their thing and wishing they had more people doing it with them, are strangers to new media. They want to wisely transition their legacy to the current ‘new media’ generation. My story is about telling theirs and making these connections in my town (Wallingford,CT).
~~
If you wish to join me, I did post the volunteer opportunity on this site as well. It is to appear here within the next 48 hrs.

Cracked -- In My Timeline

I make this late blog entry, so it seems I am already behind in my 1st week of being 58. All in all it was a good start to another year.  My intent is to blog on Sunday.

Sunday was a full day. Travel to NYC consumed much of it. Classic Vinyl was the soundtrack. The roadways were busy. The weather was unexpectedly pleasant. The task at hand was video capture of the play Cracked Upon a Time written and directed by Josiah Houston. The performance was at TheaterLab. This was my second video capture of this play. This time the equipment was more reliable and the white vs. black box provided more suitable lighting for the unmanned cameras set to Automatic. There were other changes as well that made this particular theater experience more engaging than the last even as I tried to concentrate on camera transitions within the on-site quick edit.

I did find myself more familiar with my video capture toolkit but still far from comfortable in my knowledge. I am eager to get into post production and be lost in the macro-editing decisions. I know my quick edit with Tricaster Studio is good enough for community access but it will not be good enough for Piece Theatre.

Sunday was a good conclusion to a week that was diverse. I believe the encoding issues I have been plagued by since August have been resolved. I received notice that my Free Speech Week Video took 1st place in Documentary Event in the ACM-NE Video Festival. I finished a project for Seniors Have Dreams, Too and met Peter Yarrow (who had just come from Occupy Wall Street -video) and Hilton Valentine was among the event guests.  I got to work again with Paul Braccioforte on this project. I also spent 10 hours looking at the work of newbie bloggers and provided some feedback and maybe insight.  I look forward to doing this again as part of my media advocacy activities. I did my 1st Tweets.  Tried to keep up with all my newsletter mail new ones from AARP. I hope to spend some time here fine tuning my self throughout the year.

Posts left in draft...

left in draft 10 days ago..discussion, expansion, and reconsideration
Yesterday I stumbled upon these three words that seemed to be the essence of the communication process sans the outcomes in a discussion about filler words:   It was an envigorating converstation that likely has a few reconsidering their approach within certain context.  I smiled as I read a post ..

8.11.08 stories that cause laughter - best kind
12.9.09 Integrity where are you ... there is so much energy expended for what?
6.13.10  Sandbox - a reflection chaos, idealism, musings  (draft post follows)

Transcript excerpt of recent official meeting that set this reflection in motion

But it's not our job to dictate or to control how you people are going to get along in the sand box. That's up to you. We don't own the sand box. We don't regulate the sand box. You're in the sand box; we're not. We regulate only what the law allows us to regulate. So, yes, we do have ultimate authority over this request, but we don't have the ability to tell you people to talk nice to each other. That's not our job.

My real world experiences with sandboxes: at my childhood home, a sandbox with green shallow sides was shared among 6 siblings. Here we created castles and had travel adventures with toy vehicles. In later life, constructing a sandbox for my children was overwhelming; the sheer volume of bags of white sand to be purchased.  And, here were a few public park observations that engendered a delightful sense of well-being experience.

The metaphor used in the context of this meeting provoked the gut response - this sandbox was arbitrarily defined by the commercial interests of cable cowboys and politicos without any concept of who would be expected to play in it, their compatibility or shared interests or lack thereof, of playing nicely in a confined area. Aren't public sandboxes where little kids stake out their territory and big kids trample little kids castles (bullies) and rarely over time of repeated play date encounters friends or enemies are formed. My gut reactions spiralled as words in my head concurrent with the raising of my brow, swallowed silence followed by a guttural gasp of what!!.

So what is this metaphor really about. In deep dive reflection as to its game theory application  one could posit that the central context is pure, free, open to young-child imaginings.  However, game designers must account for a wide range of dynamic interactive elements in addition to free-play. The space is contained and the goal is to have fun...build castles where wars may be fought. Control of interactions is a complex, not a simple design consideration.

Social media discussions refer to the Sandbox covenant (p 7 of 12): Where open needs rules - again for interaction. This particular metaphor reference sites 2 levels: a protected place for innovation to do its value-creating experimental work and the container for the innovator's gritty sand, protecting the larger organization from the risky rough ideas.

This video explores the metaphor. (I was view 54 in 2010). It deserves more. It is described as Quasi-documentary that explores social integration in the desert through three spatial metaphors: (1) Child's fantasy in the sandbox, Marine/army training in the sandbox, and an Artist's imagination in the sandbox. Made for graduate studies course called "Mapping The Desert/ Deserting the Map" taught by Dick Hebdige at University of California Santa Barbara.

So -- where does this metaphor leave me.  Well more than a year later the sandbox is being reviewed and may be paved over.  I have yet to comment on Docket 11-08-06 of the reorganized agency PURA or DEEP.

celebrating life..

Last evening I enjoyed the new NATGEO Series: Brain Games.  It was very informing.  It is truly amazing how much has been learned about brain function. I saw it as the beginning of the celebration:  of my, less than reliable lately, super computer essential to every waking thought and sensation. It was odd to be watching TV and have a voice say to you -- now close your eyes.  Tears did well up as I heard the comment ... that should have been much easier; as I was totally lost.

EEG and MRI were the adventures this past week.  Goo on the head.  I did go to sleep, presumably a good thing for the test that yields 200 pages of brain analysis.  I was told a ringtone story that was odd about beer & Mexico.  Have no idea why that meaningless info is still in recall mode.  The MRI was an exercise in breathe control, trying not to cough for nearly an hour; done to what was described to me as relaxing music -- which was totally awful music with occasional suggestive statements.  I wondered what would I choose as relaxing... but that day, nothing came to mind.  Just now, same question and  I recall the CD I have of Native American Music. I sometimes play it for the dogs and cats to chill out to, and me too.  It is called Red Sky, with flutes and gentle percussion and nature sounds -- it is a salute to sunsets.

This tangent thought reminds me of the smile I always quite literally feel when I play the CD by Kevin Briody: When No One's Watching. (You can buy it here.) These 2 CDs are adjacent on the shelf.  I bought a second copy for my step daughter's family. I also made a $100 contribution to NPR for a something very special in my youth (What it was I cannot recall.)  I am certain she never listened to it either.   I love the title song and Walnuts & Rice.  I think they are empowering in their simplicity.  He is sorta folk / country. I remember last Christmas I told my peers at work about this CD, the peers that were very dedicated to family that still had young children.  I hope they took action.  Maybe I will reconnect to remind them, and ask. When Josiah was doing the poetry tour as Dan Houston @2000 -- he opened for Kevin.  I should look into buying more CDs -- but the no job thing, needs to be sorted out 1st.

Both sons have called with B'day wishes. Doing projects with these two together is what has given me the most joy in recent years. The ribbons headlining this blog have been used to share B'day wishes with friends over the years. It was a photo taken by Heather for a school project. This weekend I was the Freeman Penny Quinn. The weekend included doing some artsy stuff with her which was also quite fun. She is clever. I like the lady she is becoming.

Anyway, I think this post should draw to a close as the interruptions have been numerous and my day needs to productivity.  Unfortunately, I have yet to consider blogging productive --probably erroneously.