Sunday, July 31, 2022
Sunday, March 22, 2020
I Missed 29th February Again
Tuesday, August 14, 2018
Five And A Half Years Later
Wednesday, February 27, 2013
Or Should I Have Waited Three More Years?
Wednesday, February 29, 2012
Fifty Years Ago
So back to the title of this blog? Seven plus years ago, I wrote about the never ending problems of cities. Today, the problems are only getting worse. With no end in sight.
Well, in all honesty, I don't write much here.. except that I was waiting for today to post at least something. Especially on Feb. 29. I've been posting on the 28th the past few years, I thought maybe on the 29th, I don't have to post for another four years.
Yes, indeed. This might not be a real blog in the real sense (whatever that may be), but for me, it's a way of letting people know me through my writing. Writing IS a kind of exposure, and I feel so exposed already. Feeling a little chilly now. See you in four years (hopefully).
Sunday, February 28, 2010
Yet Another Yearly Post
Saturday, February 28, 2009
What Was I Thinking (WWIT)?
In the meantime, the good thing about blogs is that you can ignore them for years and they’re still here. No rent, no salaries, no maintenance. The only reason I’m writing this so called post is that I promised myself I wouldn’t let (yet) another year pass by this time without at least putting something. Then again, who knows? I might suddenly have the urge, the passion, and (hopefully) the time to start writing again at the same pace as when I started out.
Tuesday, February 27, 2007
It's About Time
Can't we slow down... long enough to think; to reflect; to know where we're headed? Are we really at the beginning of the Knowledge Economy? How far till the Wisdom Economy? Is the Emotional Economy far behind? The Imagination Economy? The Metaphorical Economy? No, I’m not mocking anything or anybody: there’s no telling what will concern people in the near or far future. And with every new paradigm shift, whole new worlds are built and rebuilt. Knowing that “Change is the only constant” is little comfort for those who’ll have to endure it. Going back the beginning: we seem to see the future only through the rearview mirror. Get ready for a very bumpy ride.
Tuesday, February 28, 2006
Beyond Blogging, etc.
But back to blogging; people are raving about it for the wrong reasons. There are those who think that it could actually bring them fame or fortune. I don't like disappointint them, but they remind me of the average teenage basketball player aspiring to be the next Mike Jordan. It's not impossible, but it's a one-in-a-million chance. Same goes for aspiring actors and aspiring writers. Just take a look at these two links to get a more 'realistic' picture. http://news.ft.com/cms/s/384be1be-9eb1-11da-ba48-0000779e2340.html and http://www.2blowhards.com/archives/000809.html#000809
Yet who said that every blogger has to strike it rich in order for us to call the blogging phenomenon a success? Maybe we are asking the wrong question. I still believe that blogging is a revolution. But it's an evolving revolution. How it will affect us in the end is anyone's guess.
Sunday, February 26, 2006
“We Shoulda Attacked The Saudis”
Already, thousands of Muslim youths are flocking to Iraq against incredible odds just to attack "The Great Satan"; could we begin to imagine what the situation would be if the democracy-building, rose-seeking, freedom-defending soldiers were scattered between Mecca and Medina? And would it be politically possible, then, to ban 'foreigners' from entering "occupied Mecca" even if it was realistically impossible to do so? Two million yearly pilgrims (many of whom wait a lifetime) would just have to postpone their ‘hajj’ until the conflict is over.
Or maybe they don’t mean a better “military” candidate. Maybe they’re talking about attacking the Saudi money that’s “fueling terrorism”. But then when they say "Saudi money"; are they referring to the Saudi government, or the Saudi people (of whom a fraction is donating their money, to whatever cause, anyway)? For the former; I doubt very much that the Saudi monarchy has anything to do with even the thought of it. As for the latter; that would, indeed, raise some very interesting questions. Should the actions of ordinary citizens (let alone unlawful citizens or even renegades) make a whole nation liable? Would the United States be liable if some of its citizens did incredible "terror" damage to, say, Nicaragua, for example.
Wednesday, February 22, 2006
I'd Like to Buy the World a Joke
Sunday, July 10, 2005
Changing Times
One of my favorite ads shows a man standing in the street as another man is walking (horizontally) on the wall next to him with the caption: “those who keep insisting that it can’t be done are always interrupted by those who do”. My college professor warned us in the early days of CAD (Computer Aided Design) that, for technology in general, first it becomes a “possibility”, then it becomes a “necessity”.
Tuesday, January 11, 2005
Dyer Predictions: The Gee-Gees
One such Gee-Gee is a mega tsunami awaiting the Atlantic Ocean. Scientists believe that if a volcano erupts in La Palma in the Canary Islands, it would create a huge landslide that would cause waves as high as 165 feet to hit the East Coast. Some speculate that as many as 150 million would die from such a catastrophe. Of course given enough time, warned people could evacuate to higher grounds before the waves reach shore. The Asian tsunami took nearly two hours to reach Indian peninsula. The distance from the Canary Islands to New York or Boston is much greater. But what if all of this happened in the middle of a sever winter blizzard? Not only will avoiding the crushing waves be difficult, but also rescue efforts in the immediate aftermath, where seconds count, would be severely hindered. Sounds like a plot for another Hollywood disaster movie.
As for reality, ‘other’ scientists dispute these findings as overblown. They say the landslide of the volcanic island would happen in stages and the island would sink, if it actually did, gradually and hence cause mini, not mega, tsunamis.
Sunday, January 02, 2005
Take My Blog, Please
Another thing about blogging is: do I want it one-way? Do I want to write what I want to and exclude others? Or do I want everyone to contribute? Will it be more valuable as time goes by or less valuable? What would I want to read about in my blogs ten years from now? Lets imagine that blogging was available in 1995 and that I was a very active blogger. What would I wish now to have been writing about on a daily basis?
Saturday, January 01, 2005
If At First You Don't Suck Seed
Do I seem unfocused? Maybe it's because I AM unfocused. Not only that, but my writings are very lame. They lack substance. I myself don't know what the point is. Can blogs commit suicide? What if they come back to life again? This is only my eighth posting on my first blog and still I haven't gotten quite the hang of it.
Wednesday, December 29, 2004
Nine and a half blogs
Or maybe it would be better if I had several different blogs to address seven different themes that I'd like to write about. Maybe having just one blog is not only not enough; it actually cripples my very attempt at blogging. I'm beginning to believe that the more a blog is narrow and specific, the more useful it is to its reader. So, what topics should I choose? And how specific should they be? Top on the list, of course, would be the pursuit and building of the Realistic Utopia (whatever that turns out to be).
Clearly, there is a sense that only now are we on the verge of a 'knowledge' revolution. The 'information' revolution is so yesterday. Its the transfer of knowledge that will bring real and tremendous change to our lives, individually as well as collectively. Having all the information in the world at (literally) the tip of my fingers amounts to nothing if I don't know how to make use of it.
Tuesday, December 28, 2004
Bloggers block?
The spell checker is beginning to get on my nerves. It's ironic enough not to recognize the words blog, blogger, blogging and blogged, but it also keeps ignoring to 'learn' them.
Monday, December 27, 2004
In The Land of Blogs
Me? I think I fall into the last category. But at least I believe my subconscious knows what's really going on, and that's enough for me. Perhaps I want to articulate. There's a lot of stuff on my mind that I want to get out so that I can sort it out, put it somewhere for future reference, and free the hard disk in my brain. And who knows, maybe someday I (or whoever) might make something useful out of it. Just what the world urgently needs today: a lazy procrastinating semi-philosopher.
About two years ago I began writing at the rate of 500 words per day after reading a book by Roberta Bryant called "Anybody Can Write". The idea was to just write anything that comes to mind, but to do it consistently on a daily basis. I wrote quite a lot and surprised myself. Then after the twelfth day I did something that, in retrospect, I should've postponed indefinitely: I read what I actually wrote. Then I stopped cold. The only other time I picked up the writing habit was when emailing people I don't really know. Of course I had to first find the willing recipients, start some kind of conversation and send and receive until one of us misses a beat; gets lazier ever after; feels guilty and/or awful about it and just terminates the thing.
Then along came blogging. It's better, and more challenging, than just writing to myself on my computer. And, unlike emailing, there's no waiting for a reply before I proceed or jump into another topic. As I've stated earlier, its the rewriting that I hate most. But by just blogging along on a daily basis, I don't really have to worry about redoing anything anytime soon. If someday I look back at all my writings and think that something might be worthy of editing then I can do it with no pressure or time constraint.
Sunday, December 26, 2004
Who Moved My Ass?
The question would be then, what kind of transportation 'invention' is necessary to make us really rural? For one, it has to take us from the city center to our rural habitats and back even more swiftly and cheaply than the current car-centric system. The only alternative on the table is what's called PRT (Personal Rapid Transit). But that idea has been criticized beyond recognition. I side with some of this criticism, but only against some of the solutions and applications touted and not against the basic idea. PRT is a sound idea who's time has come. The problem is in not understanding that it's a whole new paradigm that will end up rearranging the very make up of the built environment.
A paradigm change in transportation would very likely bring a change in property values, and nobody wants to see their valuables tumble. Maybe this could partly explain why the Minnesota Experimental City (MXC) did not make it after being only within one year of breaking ground in the late sixties. Two hundred thousand people living in a dome with no cars or schools was indeed too futuristic even for that dreamy era. But not enough 'interest' from 'doers' in government and society in general is probably what put it on hold indefinitely. Until now.
Seismic shifts that would eventually affect the built environment are already being anticipated. Namely; the end of cheap oil; the failure(s) of the car on so many levels (even if oil was forever cheap); the water crises; the energy crises; the communication (especially wireless) revolution, and the aging population are only part of what we're heading into. The, then, readily available solutions of MXC and PRT would have been a marvelous mix forty years ago, yet are seen even today as futuristic and not the future. It seems we don't want to move from the corner that we painted ourselves into. We want to have our cheese and eat it, too.
Saturday, December 25, 2004
It's Dark In Here
But going back to my title; I can't see a thing here. Not that I should. Ten years ago, the internet was just beginning to catch the interest of the general public, though it would be another three years until the business people jump in on it. If I could have foreseen then what things would turn out to be. And ten years from now? Everybody is thinking in terms of the advances in the wireless revolution, the oil peak, and the still ongoing advances in raw computing power. Yet life in 2015 will turn out to be a complete surprise for many people. The future almost always does.
And this blog is still lame and cautious even though I'm (suppose to be) deliberate about being spontaneous. Have patience, I might yet begin to improve in the coming few weeks. Until then, you nonreaders will just have to wait.
Wednesday, December 22, 2004
Look World... I'm Naked!!!
As I've stated in my first blog, I don't intend for anyone to read what I'm writing. It's a therapy thing, sort of. From what problem, I haven't the faintest idea. But after I'm done with it I'll know for sure what was 'wrong' with me. So it's a blog about nothing, and everything. No, wait, that's Jerry Seinfeld's show (it could turn out to be copyrighted or something).
So, Dave Barry is 'retiring' in a couple of days. From what? Can you actually retire from writing? Well, if Johnny Carson can retire from joking with his guests... But I don't like to comment on current affairs lest my unreaders get the impression that I'm starting a real blog.
Tuesday, December 21, 2004
Writing as therapy
But I shouldn't give the impression that I'm trying to communicate anything here. I'm not presenting any ideas, nor trying to reach anybody. I'm using writing in of itself as therapy. Writing in an 'exposed' form, that is. I have been a procrastinator and a perfectionist for way too long. Hesitating to write a single word for no logical reason whatsoever. Who cares if what I write is not perfect. I WANT it that way now. You don't have to read it. But that doesn't mean that I shouldn't write it. Or feel bad about writing after I do.
I've discovered that the writing itself is not the most difficult part. The hard part is facing the 'RE-' writing. The editing. The choosing a better word, a more appropriate phrase, a more coherent structure. But I'm done with that now. I will write regardless of anything else, with no concern for putting even a basic idea to unify the jumbled mess that I don't care to review (save for spelling and grammar).