Acerebel’s blog

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Well, I guess we could get hold of his rifle now. Charlton Heston. 

Against the Machine: Being Human in the Age of the Electronic Mob

Lee Siegel

ABC Radio in Australia had an interview with Lee Spiegel, author of Against the Machine: being human in in the age of the electronic mob.

I haven't read the book (yet), but the interview is very interesting.

I've (so far) found the Internet to be a very pleasant place. I've been treated kindly and with respect, bar one bad exchange. I wonder if I'm an exception or not, or is my experience related to where I hang out, my middle-agedness, my interest in things other than popularity, celebrity, shock, sexual interaction and so on?

Read the article and let me know what you think and how your experience of being a Netizen compares (but only, of course, if you want to!).

What's the one thing you're most neurotic about?

My mental health.

Show us who you would want as a guest if you were a talk show host.

I'm sure this isn't an original choice, and I should probably be choosing someone of much greater gravitas, but ... I've always wanted to meet Dorothy Parker. I reckon she'd be a real hoot - full of acerbic quick-wittedness and spicy anecdote.

"For her epitaph she suggested, 'Excuse my dust'."

If we're talking about people who are still alive, I think Aaron Sorkin, the writer of so much (if not all) of The West Wing series, would make a fascinating guest. Love or hate the series, you have to admire the coherence of the artistic vision behind it. I normally steer clear of 'Hollywooditis', but Mr Sorkin seems more about craft than celebrity.

PS I couldn't figure out how to put their images in this post and, besides, it felt like stealing to take the images off the Net. There are photos of them behind the links of their names, though.

I subscribe to an ezine from Cagle Cartoons. Today's featured topic is China and Tibet.

I think it's worth a look; editorial cartoonists mostly from the US, but not entirely, give their take on the subject.

What's the most valuable thing you've ever had stolen?

Time.

An intriguing site that should while away quite a few hours, especially if you right-click and open in new window to see each and every entry! One hundred young photographers posted images they'd taken of those they love - a slice-of-life, slice-of-viewpoint look into the worlds of others.

The Quotable Woman: The First 5,000 Years

I'm not quite sure why numbered things interest me. I surely do love a good list, though! And I'm a fan of collections of other people's thoughts.

I bought myself a book recently, second-hand, called The Quotable Woman: The First 5000 Years, by Elaine T Partnow. It was so intriguing that I bought two more - one for a girlfriend and one for one of my sisters. The book contains the words of women (mostly European, mostly white, mostly non-colonised) from Salome to the very recent past - the 1990s. It's been fascinating dipping into it to discover what kinds of activities, thoughts, obsessions, politics and domestic matters concerned the distaff side throughout the centuries.

One thing I did note was a change over the years from the 1800s to today, from women being concerned primarily with things outside themselves (slavery, the poverty of others, the dread of war, the state of marriage as a social institution (the economics and power issues), education and professional life) to their increasing concentration on things within themselves (feelings, mental health, self-assertion, self-esteem and so on). I'm not entirely sure why this swing has taken place over a 200-year-period; perhaps because in the developed world, with high literacy, relative economic stability and prosperity for many, and more personal freedom entrenched in law ... perhaps these things really have given us the chance to be more self-examinatory. I wonder if the women in the undeveloped and developing worlds are still talking about the matters our forebears were speaking and writing about 200 years ago?

Not Quite What I Was Planning: Six-Word Memoirs by Writers Famous and Obscure

Larry Smith

Another book that's taken my fancy, and which I've just ordered, is called Not Quite What I Was Planning: Six-Word Memoirs by Writers Famous and Obscure, from the Smith web site. People were invited to contribute their memoirs, written in only six words. There are some beauties: Catholic school backfired. Sin is in! from Nikki Beland; Extremely responsible; secretly longed for spontaneity from Sabra Jennings; Almost a victim of my family from Chuck Sangster; and pages more. Check it out if the thoughts of others interest you, particularly when they are pithy rather than turgid.

PostSecret: Extraordinary Confessions from Ordinary Lives

Frank Warren

About three or four years ago, I bought a book called Postsecret, which has drawn me back in a macabre and almost voyeuristic way ever since, causing me to dip into it periodically at unpredictable intervals. The author, Frank Warren, printed and distributed 3,000 postcards on which people were invited to write a secret that they'd never told anyone else, and mail it back anonymously to him. What Mr Warren received in return no doubt featured some unpublished dross, but it also brought some remarkably poignant pieces, all of them presented without context:

• I'm 25 and I've never been kissed. It's not that I don't want to ... just that no one else does.
• He was never that into me but I let him fake it for over a year.
• Every time I approach an overpass, I think how easy it would be  to simply turn the wheel ever so slightly to the left and find peace, at long last ...
• If I had a million dollars, I would give it all away for one more day with her like it was in the beginning.
• I don't care about recycling, but I pretend I do.
• I think my actor roommate is ugly and untalented.
• I have made six postcards, all with secrets that I was afraid to tell the one person I tell everything to, my boyfriend. This morning, I planned to mail them, but instead I left them on the pillow next to his head while he was sleeping. Ten minutes ago he arrived at my office and asked me to marry him. I said 'yes'.

Fascinating stuff, I think.

If you had one month to live, what five things would you do?
Suggested by Acerebel.

1. Stop working and get my lump sum superannuation so that I could do 2 to 5.

2. Spend a week making sure all my affairs were in order, including a) stripping my computer of anything in which I ever said anything less than pleasant about someone else so that it would never be found to hurt them; b) making sure my unpublished art was printed and framed, and provided to a reputable artist's representative, to sell with a view toward increasing my estate for my loved ones; and c) tidying my home so that no one was left with that burden.

3. Arrange a pre-funeral party, that I could attend, with all my friends and family, good music, great food, lovely conversation, and a heartfelt 'thanks for everything and farewell' from me. (Did this once before when I was diagnosed with leukaemia, and it was a wonderful afternoon.)

4. Take one last trip for a week-and-a-half with special friends and family (they know who they are), first class to Paris or Hokkaido or Edinburgh or maybe even Chicago, to hear the blues. Oooh, hard to choose!

5. Pay whatever it cost for me, my family and some other much-loved ones to reunite for a week in a lovely spot, such as on Vancouver Island, to remember only the good times, and then try to slip gracefully away into whatever awaits us next, whether it be Paradise or oblivion.

Icebreaker in harbour

Just a quick note to alert you all to an online community and forum(s) that may be of interest to some.

My sister, who's Associate Professor and Head of School, School of Geography and Environmental Studies at the University of Tasmania, is involved in a new international project called Webbing the Islands.

Webbing the Islands is an international and intergenerational community engagement project about island lives, cultures and environments brought to you by the University of Tasmania's Community, Place and Change Theme Area. 

victoria british columbia capital city

The project is in its early stages still, but the more people who participate, the better.

If you live on an island (Vancouver, Tasmania, Madagascar, Malta, Sardinia, Hawaii, Scilly, Shetlands, Canary, Greece, Caribbean, Manhattan ... and so on), here's a chance to contribute to and participate in discussions about your culture, the future of islands in light of global warming matters, island economics, and much more.

Remote Island in the ocean

If you're just interested in islands (and face it, who isn't, at some level, even if it's only dreaming of a tropical hideaway?) and don't actually live on one, well ... you're more than welcome, too. At the very least, you'll learn something about the challenges, joys and tribulations of living on islands, and you may make your own contribution to the knowledge base by your opinions, views, thoughts and contributions (to, for example, the glossary).

Of particular interest to any of you with children at school will be the section on Island Studies.

Webbing the Islands and the Tasmanian Department of Education have produced a creative, engaging and novel Island Studies Curriculum.

Manhattan skyline

The Curriculum is free-access, contains hundreds of ideas for teachers and students, and is just waiting for you to adopt it! Why not tour the PDFs [on the Webbing the Islands site], and then join us online to network, share work from the Curriciulum, add your ideas and insights - and connect with others who have an interest and passion in island lives, cultures and environments? 

Check it out at Webbing the Islands online. You will need to register, but you won't receive spam.