Holding Forth

If I were a betting man, I would say this sort of mentality will come into fashion within the next 10-20 years, and with it will come creative and academic thought. It won’t be the only thought, but there are opportunities here.

Theory of the hands–a beautiful thought.

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The Case for Working With Your Hands

By MATTHEW B. CRAWFORD
The television show “Deadliest Catch” depicts commercial crab fishermen in the Bering Sea. Another, “Dirty Jobs,” shows all kinds of grueling work; one episode featured a guy who inseminates turkeys for a living. The weird fascination of these shows must lie partly in the fact that such confrontations with material reality have become exotically unfamiliar. Many of us do work that feels more surreal than real. Working in an office, you often find it difficult to see any tangible result from your efforts. What exactly have you accomplished at the end of any given day? Where the chain of cause and effect is opaque and responsibility diffuse, the experience of individual agency can be elusive. “Dilbert,” “The Office” and similar portrayals of cubicle life attest to the dark absurdism with which many Americans have come to view their white-collar jobs.

Is there a more “real” alternative (short of inseminating turkeys)?

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Full article here.

If this blog is to survive (there are doubts), I need to get an more formal online agenda. Let me enumerate what I see as my options:

1) Let it rot slowly like now. Post randomly and infrequently. This would require little work and actually fits the statistics: most blogs are highly active for 30-16 months…that is about how long I was into writing here.

2) Formally lay the blog to rest. This offers closure and space to move on. Maybe it is time to break up for good, to take some time alone, and see what else the world has to offer. I will always have the memories.

3) Revitalize “Rants”. This would require me to rediscover an interest, reason, or rational as to why I want to share my life with you people in the first place. I mean really, why blog? (Disclaimer: I have been reading about blog theory–I have some unanswered concerning with blogging.) There are other, less publisizing, modes of comunication that I currently make use of. Is the blog a good personal investment of time? Is it a release? It is self-affirming act? Is it a waste of time? Who are you people?!!!

5) Revamp/reformat “Rants.” In this scenario, “Rants” as an avenue of thought would likely be rendered an archive in my blogging history and another blog would be born. This has benefits because I have some things I would like to spout off about concerning technology, society, philosophy, etc, but if that is the case, I think placing a period at the end of the chapter called “Rants” before writing the next one would be useful. It is nice to change clothes once and awhile. A perceived clean slate can be inspiring.

So yeah. That is what comes to mind at the moment. Considering the audience (you) here as severely decreased in my lackadaisical blogging efforts, this entire entry is basically a bullhorning to the ether. Until a decision is reached, “Rants” will follow item number 1) on the list that being: it will rot. :-)

t

http://thereifixedit.com/

In case you are wondering (or even still reading this blog), Rants is being wound down for a bit. Activity will be sporatic here for awhile, just as it has been for awhile already. The blog will not be hung up, at least not yet, but there are a lot of projects in the pipeline and blabbering here isn’t a priority.

For the time being, see some active networks here. This is also a clue as to what I am up to.

Cheers,

t

…still here. No net for 6 weeks, but back online. Writing writing writing.

t

To the Editor:

While the economic downturn has surely been hard on many, including Mark Cooper and the other subjects in this article, they are merely experiencing what many Americans have been living through for the last few decades.

The period of economic abundance skipped over the vast majority of Americans. The working poor. Business owners and the self-employed with no health insurance. Families, one illness away from bankruptcy. College graduates unable to find work above minimum wage.

It is ironic that those recently unemployed from their well-paying jobs are suddenly concerned with health insurance, car payments and housing costs. Welcome to the way of life most of us have been living for years.

Sarah Stamm
Seattle, March 1, 2009

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Taken from this article, in relation to this article and this article.

t