So Just Exactly What ARE We Doing, Anyway?

[Kai]

My immediate goals are:

1)Completing my masters degree.
2)Figuring out what the hell is next.

My /long term/ goals and agendas are:

1)Personalized continued learning, until I know everything there is to know about everything, or die.
2) Get a job working somewhere in a museum.
3) Continue introducing people to the universe and life, as amazing and strange as it really is /in reality/, without any "gilding of refined gold".
4)Become the greatest force of biodiversity conservation the world has ever known, the Taxonomist Highlander.

My motives are:

The universe is amazing. This planet is amazing. Living things are amazing. My days, when I actually pay attention, are filled with amazement and wonder. Likewise, the universe, Earth, and life are STRANGE and ALIEN to what most of us experience. I WANT TO EXPERIENCE THAT! And I want to know why things are the way they are. I often get distracted, because its hard to stay focused when everything is WEIRD and AWESOME. I know it is, and I want everyone else to know too. Because when people start paying attention to how awesome everything is, and how small and petty it makes our little human microcosms seem, I think small notions will be left by the wayside.

[The Good Reverend Roger]

My immediate goals are:

1)Completing my masters degree.
2)Figuring out what the hell is next.

My /long term/ goals and agendas are:

1)Personalized continued learning, until I know everything there is to know about everything, or die.
2) Get a job working somewhere in a museum.
3) Continue introducing people to the universe and life, as amazing and strange as it really is /in reality/, without any "gilding of refined gold".
4)Become the greatest force of biodiversity conservation the world has ever known, the Taxonomist Highlander.

My motives are:

The universe is amazing. This planet is amazing. Living things are amazing. My days, when I actually pay attention, are filled with amazement and wonder. Likewise, the universe, Earth, and life are STRANGE and ALIEN to what most of us experience. I WANT TO EXPERIENCE THAT! And I want to know why things are the way they are. I often get distracted, because its hard to stay focused when everything is WEIRD and AWESOME. I know it is, and I want everyone else to know too. Because when people start paying attention to how awesome everything is, and how small and petty it makes our little human microcosms seem, I think small notions will be left by the wayside.

So, I should put you down for "Keep the world strange/make it stranger"?

[Kai]

My immediate goals are:

1)Completing my masters degree.
2)Figuring out what the hell is next.

My /long term/ goals and agendas are:

1)Personalized continued learning, until I know everything there is to know about everything, or die.
2) Get a job working somewhere in a museum.
3) Continue introducing people to the universe and life, as amazing and strange as it really is /in reality/, without any "gilding of refined gold".
4)Become the greatest force of biodiversity conservation the world has ever known, the Taxonomist Highlander.

My motives are:

The universe is amazing. This planet is amazing. Living things are amazing. My days, when I actually pay attention, are filled with amazement and wonder. Likewise, the universe, Earth, and life are STRANGE and ALIEN to what most of us experience. I WANT TO EXPERIENCE THAT! And I want to know why things are the way they are. I often get distracted, because its hard to stay focused when everything is WEIRD and AWESOME. I know it is, and I want everyone else to know too. Because when people start paying attention to how awesome everything is, and how small and petty it makes our little human microcosms seem, I think small notions will be left by the wayside.

So, I should put you down for "Keep the world strange/make it stranger"?

Yeah. With the understanding that "making it stranger" is just simply uncovering the strangeness that's right in front of us.

Heres an example of alien strangeness that is often overlooked.

In Utah, there lives one of the oldest and largest organisms on the planet. It's body covers a fifth of a square mile, weights over 6000 tones, and is estimated to be 80000 years old, the most massive of the Superkingdom Archaeplastida ever known. It's a great sprawling giant, a massive network, constantly shedding and growing parts. They call it Pando, the Trembling Giant.


Now, most people would just look at Pando, and think, oh lovely, a big grove of aspens. That's the anti-alien, weirdness-dismissing part of their brain talking. The anthropocentric tendencies tries to eliminate that which is alien and strange, tries to subjugate it or make it more normal so it is easier to deal with. In reality, Pando IS alien and strange and amazing, but humans have this strange idea that what is known is normal and uninteresting. If zebras were imaginary, and unicorns were real, people would lust after zebras.

It's the reason I did the "In those days" project, to point out just how weird and amazing things are by using mythic language, the sort of language that SHOULD already be associated with truly real things.

[Cainad (dec.)]

Last semester, myself and my 300 or so classmates at the Southampton campus were transferred to Stony Brook's Main Campus for budget reasons. Let me tell you a little about this place.

In the last year, my university finally crawled out of the Top 10 (and into the Top 11) most Unhappy Students in the entire United States, according to Princeton Review. You know, the list that's typically filled with military schools.

When this news reached our ears, there was no shock, no cries of "what bullshit!" Just sullen half-smiles and bitter laughs, "yup, that sounds about right."

My mom asked me what the hell is wrong with that place, why is everyone shuffling around in dark clothing looking at their feet, why is absolutely no one looking like they're having a remotely good time?

Because everyone, everyone, wants to get the hell out. It's the same attitude that these kids had in high school, "Let's just get the fuck out as fast as we can." Back in high school it was to get out and get into college, the promised land of study as you please and make some of the best friends you'll ever have. Now it's get the hell out and find a life where we can have some peace from the grind that is undergraduate life here.

Academically, this place has shown me what I want out of life in the long-term. I can't fault it for that.

I put up no posters last semester. I experienced the worst bout of suicidal depression I've had in ages last semester. My friends and I fought and bickered like devils.

Something is horribly, poisonously wrong here. There are 20,000 kids, ages 18-24, all gathered in one place away from their parents, and no one is having a good time.


Now, I told you that story so I could tell you this one:


I know I can't singlehandedly change the culture of a miserable school. I don't have the charisma or leverage to lead a large group of revolutionary fun-havers. But I know I am capable of changing myself, of grinding my heels into this slippery slope of sad-sack moroseness and setting a godsbedamned EXAMPLE of how to get through the day without spending every minute wanting to jump into traffic.

But I have been struggling at doing this, failing to be an example. My agenda is to fix that, and by my own actions be a force for something good in the lives of a score of thousands of other young people who forgot how to have fun (or never learned in the first place. We all spent our formative teen years in this post-9/11 world after all).

[Requia ☣]

My immediate goals are:

1)Completing my masters degree.
2)Figuring out what the hell is next.

My /long term/ goals and agendas are:

1)Personalized continued learning, until I know everything there is to know about everything, or die.
2) Get a job working somewhere in a museum.
3) Continue introducing people to the universe and life, as amazing and strange as it really is /in reality/, without any "gilding of refined gold".
4)Become the greatest force of biodiversity conservation the world has ever known, the Taxonomist Highlander.

My motives are:

The universe is amazing. This planet is amazing. Living things are amazing. My days, when I actually pay attention, are filled with amazement and wonder. Likewise, the universe, Earth, and life are STRANGE and ALIEN to what most of us experience. I WANT TO EXPERIENCE THAT! And I want to know why things are the way they are. I often get distracted, because its hard to stay focused when everything is WEIRD and AWESOME. I know it is, and I want everyone else to know too. Because when people start paying attention to how awesome everything is, and how small and petty it makes our little human microcosms seem, I think small notions will be left by the wayside.

So, I should put you down for "Keep the world strange/make it stranger"?

Yeah. With the understanding that "making it stranger" is just simply uncovering the strangeness that's right in front of us.

Heres an example of alien strangeness that is often overlooked.

In Utah, there lives one of the oldest and largest organisms on the planet. It's body covers a fifth of a square mile, weights over 6000 tones, and is estimated to be 80000 years old, the most massive of the Superkingdom Archaeplastida ever known. It's a great sprawling giant, a massive network, constantly shedding and growing parts. They call it Pando, the Trembling Giant.


Now, most people would just look at Pando, and think, oh lovely, a big grove of aspens. That's the anti-alien, weirdness-dismissing part of their brain talking. The anthropocentric tendencies tries to eliminate that which is alien and strange, tries to subjugate it or make it more normal so it is easier to deal with. In reality, Pando IS alien and strange and amazing, but humans have this strange idea that what is known is normal and uninteresting. If zebras were imaginary, and unicorns were real, people would lust after zebras.

It's the reason I did the "In those days" project, to point out just how weird and amazing things are by using mythic language, the sort of language that SHOULD already be associated with truly real things.

Jesus Christ.  I certainly see it as alien.  Apparently they aren't that uncommon on that scale in Utah either, but I've never heard of it before now.

[Adios]

My immediate goals are:

1)Completing my masters degree.
2)Figuring out what the hell is next.

My /long term/ goals and agendas are:

1)Personalized continued learning, until I know everything there is to know about everything, or die.
2) Get a job working somewhere in a museum.
3) Continue introducing people to the universe and life, as amazing and strange as it really is /in reality/, without any "gilding of refined gold".
4)Become the greatest force of biodiversity conservation the world has ever known, the Taxonomist Highlander.

My motives are:

The universe is amazing. This planet is amazing. Living things are amazing. My days, when I actually pay attention, are filled with amazement and wonder. Likewise, the universe, Earth, and life are STRANGE and ALIEN to what most of us experience. I WANT TO EXPERIENCE THAT! And I want to know why things are the way they are. I often get distracted, because its hard to stay focused when everything is WEIRD and AWESOME. I know it is, and I want everyone else to know too. Because when people start paying attention to how awesome everything is, and how small and petty it makes our little human microcosms seem, I think small notions will be left by the wayside.

So, I should put you down for "Keep the world strange/make it stranger"?

Yeah. With the understanding that "making it stranger" is just simply uncovering the strangeness that's right in front of us.

Heres an example of alien strangeness that is often overlooked.

In Utah, there lives one of the oldest and largest organisms on the planet. It's body covers a fifth of a square mile, weights over 6000 tones, and is estimated to be 80000 years old, the most massive of the Superkingdom Archaeplastida ever known. It's a great sprawling giant, a massive network, constantly shedding and growing parts. They call it Pando, the Trembling Giant.


Now, most people would just look at Pando, and think, oh lovely, a big grove of aspens. That's the anti-alien, weirdness-dismissing part of their brain talking. The anthropocentric tendencies tries to eliminate that which is alien and strange, tries to subjugate it or make it more normal so it is easier to deal with. In reality, Pando IS alien and strange and amazing, but humans have this strange idea that what is known is normal and uninteresting. If zebras were imaginary, and unicorns were real, people would lust after zebras.

It's the reason I did the "In those days" project, to point out just how weird and amazing things are by using mythic language, the sort of language that SHOULD already be associated with truly real things.

One of my favorite thing is driving off road through groves of Quakies in the summer. There is something so very peaceful about it.

[The Good Reverend Roger]

There are few things I enjoy more than the peak of creativity that so often follows a board melt-down.

Likewise

Can't say the same, here.  I'm not doing shit until this other business is resolved.  Why bother?

[Adios]

There are few things I enjoy more than the peak of creativity that so often follows a board melt-down.

Likewise

Can't say the same, here.  I'm not doing shit until this other business is resolved.  Why bother?

Me either, don't blame you.

[Nephew Twiddleton]

There are few things I enjoy more than the peak of creativity that so often follows a board melt-down.

Likewise

Can't say the same, here.  I'm not doing shit until this other business is resolved.  Why bother?

Me either, don't blame you.

Hopefully it resolves soon then.

[The Good Reverend Roger]

There are few things I enjoy more than the peak of creativity that so often follows a board melt-down.

Likewise

Can't say the same, here.  I'm not doing shit until this other business is resolved.  Why bother?

Me either, don't blame you.

Hopefully it resolves soon then.

It's back on.  Please be patient, as I have all this stuff on my laptop, and I don't have that much time at home, these days.  I hope to be ready for the next step sometime this weekend.

[hooplala]

Take all the time you need.

On a related note, Captain Utopia and I are in the beginning stages of a new project.  I will post more when there is more to say, but this thread will be very helpful I think.

[The Good Reverend Roger]

Take all the time you need.

On a related note, Captain Utopia and I are in the beginning stages of a new project.  I will post more when there is more to say, but this thread will be very helpful I think.

Sounds good.  Hopefully there's some overlap.  Hell, even if you're doing the exact same thing, good on ya.

[The Wizard]

Anything new with this idea, or was it dropped?

Just wondering...

[The Good Reverend Roger]

Anything new with this idea, or was it dropped?

Just wondering...

Not enough time. I haven't dropped it, I just need 3 continuous hours to finish the first bit.

[The Wizard]

Not enough time. I haven't dropped it, I just need 3 continuous hours to finish the first bit.

Good. Wanted to see what came out of this. Really damn disappointing if it had fallen through.