some words on itunes
downloading singles makes it less likely that we’ll wade through the rest of albums, and discover the gems therein

smart playlists not smart enough

library too big

stupid with external files

discussion of whether the government should make it illegal to smack children on channel 3 morning show. i sympathize with both sides more than i expect, and realize i really am becoming more libertarian.

discussion of iraq on bbc2 news show, and i see a parallel between expecting democracy just to grow and expecting parents to just stop using physical punishment. it’s interesting that these issues are on opposite sides of the political spectrum.

ok, so the glasses that we use for water here in the restaurant? they are really, really stupid.

their stupidity lies in the fact that they are inCredibly bottom heavy, which, on first glance, seems like a feature rather than a bug. i mean, people bump into their water glasses all the time, right? full tables, kids jostling around, food being delivered… why don’t we make the glasses so they never tip over?! what a great idea!!

the trouble is, they never tip over when they are oriented as drinking glasses – with the opening facing up, ready to serve their purpose for the customer. if you turn them the other way, however (say, to put them in the dishwasher, or to carry them on a rack from the dishwasher to the shelf), they act like overly eager dominoes, careening into gaps, knocking into any more stable glasses that lie in their path, and, if possible, diving to the floor just to show how seriously they take that whole gravity business.

this is intensely frustrating.

and did i mention that it’s really stupid? i mean, not only is it annoying and potentially dangerous, but it causes restaurant owners to lose money because of a higher than average number of breakages. and if i am correct in assuming that the glasses were intentionally crafted to be bottom-heavy so that they would tip over less often, then that’s pretty embarrassing, and i should write a letter to oneida explaining what use cases and prototyping could do for them.

trouble is, i don’t really think the people who designed the glasses were stupid. ok, maybe a little bit, but seriously, they meant well. and the people who design the knives, they would have to set a lot of tables and wait for the knives to get beat up a little bit to realize that slightly rounded handles, while attractive when held in the hand, cause the knives to spin on the table if they get just a little bit bent with use, which makes setting a formal table perplexing, as the knives kind of stick together and slant 30 degrees or so as soon as you let go of them, as if a ghost is playing with you to make your job harder. and the people who came up with those table feet that conveniently screw in and out in order to let you accomodate for uneven floors or bent legs, they would have had to do a lot of tests to realize that it’s hard to tell which way
so ok, apart from getting my ranting out of the way, thoughts like these have me thinking quite a bit lately.

[this post was headed in the direction of laying out a participatory design framework that would basically create an idea pipeline for people in jobs like mine at the hollytree (or anywhere) so that the little jolts of inspiration that are lost on the job could be recorded, aggregated, and hopefully acted upon. i got sidelined a bit by the discovery of cambrian house, which aims to do something somewhat similar, but is more web-oriented. i still think this is an idea worth pursuing, but i’m not sure how to fit it in yet. so it joins that club. :) ]

growing out of fundamentalism
how can technology help?
articulating values
sharing space with others
the shape that central governance should take as we get bigger and more diverse

my thoughts today are about the role of religion in moral action. or the relationship of religion and political action. or perhaps, the relationship between moral action and political action. i think that i am coming to believe in a much more limited government than i used to believe was desirable. i think that social justice does not need to be a result of governmental intervention, and in fact, it is probably more desirable when it isn’t. i think that the private and non-profit sectors are in a position to reinvent themselves as real vehicles for moral action and social change, and that i want to push that envelope.

so i want to separate the religion conversation and the political conversation, but i also think that there is a very real movement right now towards framing the political conversation as a conversation of faith, and issues of morality and politics are difficult to disentangle. our current political climate is not one where faith cannot come into play — the scope of the government is simply too broad.

in this climate, the relationship between liberal faith and liberal politics is not being articulated, and the conversation is suffering.

It was interesting for me because I felt like I was a part of both of the festivals in some way – the friends that I came with, and the potential professional life that lies before me, are more a part of the spirit of the new Bonnaroo, but my roots lie more in the old. So I felt both saddened and excited. There are things about both of the worlds that I love and value, and there were things about both of the festivals that I loved and valued, too. Walking the line between the two was quite thought-provoking, and it felt symbolic. It reminded me of some of the tension that F&L is encountering as it ages, and it all feels like a larger sort of tension as my generation comes of age and searches for its identity.
I felt like I was trying to learn how to walk the line, and walking the line feels important. Because in the end, there aren’t really two festivals, or worlds, there’s just one, and I don’t think we can move forward until we acknowledge the wisdom inherent in them both.

the conference from the sv perspective is somewhat unique. grunt labor on one hand, representatives of the next generation of the field on the other, we have a rather strange group personality.

i wake up tired, and always intend to catch up on sleep during the day, but then the day itself is engaging enough that sleep never leaps to the top of my list of priorities, and this feels good – i am doing things, i am living life, i am not a captive of the grog. but then the next morning it just feels more intense.

so sometimes i find myself worrying about going on the record with things – even the Spoken record – when i’m not sure what i really think or i worry that i am being controversial. i don’t think this is that uncommon a worry, nor do i think that resisting it is that uncommon a goal.
don’t be afraid to be yourself, we say.
speak your mind, we say.
don’t let other people get you down.

and yet, the world is full of people playing CYA (definition two (but if someone wants to build that yachting page, go to!)) when there is the slightest hint of real danger, and it’s one of those things that it’s so much easier to point out in others than step up to ourselves when we’re the ones on the line.

i think these things.
i don’t know what else to say about it.
it’s kind of a ‘that’s the way it is’ sort of conversation, where we shrug and move on to the weather or thoughts on a new flavor of potato chips, trying our best not to feel like small, small people who are unable to tackle big, big things.

but then yesterday i found myself considering whether the idea that we should be picky about what goes on the record is becoming ridiculous because there are increasingly more and more situations where the record is beyond our control. then i found myself considering whether the rational thing to do is now to take the Opposite approach – put Everything on the record, and the wackier the better.

the argument goes something like this:
given that there is no way for us to know whether we are being recorded at a given moment or not;
given that the sort of things that we are likely to be doing at these moments where we may or may not be recorded have the potential to be embarrassing in their frivolity and lack of context;
given that people are going to get used to this kind of information about us, making it less scandalous to see us at our less-than-polished moments;
given that the more we put out there in an intentional manner, the more likely we are to tip the balance towards signal and away from noise;
given that, the more we say, the better we get at saying things;

npr on the way to school today
testimonies from 9/11 families as a plea for moussaoui’s death
the danger that we might attack iran
hard to reconcile with such a lovely spring day