I’ve decided I’m going to participate in the National Blog Posting Month exercise. It’s been a long time since I’ve posted on my blog, and I have missed it. I’ve been dealing with a very hectic schedule in my real life, between taking a full load of courses at the university, and working, and home life, social life etc., I’ve ignored my blog for too long. I get these email alerts for NaBloPoMo, an offshot of NaNoWriMo, and I always look at the monthly theme and think to myself, “oh that sounds interesting, I should write something about that.” Then I forget all about it till the next email alert. But this time, I’ll make it a point to stick to it.

“Look up” invokes three basic concepts in my mind:

1: Optimism.

As in, looking up at the bright side of life… trying to find ways to look at things from a positive perspective as much as possible. This is hard for those of us who pay attention to the news, to politics, and the state of affairs in many, I’d say most, parts of the world. But as a wonderful visiting Professor told our Equity Studies class recently, “the greatest challenge for those of us aware of the problems of the world, is to learn how to love the world.” This really is the greatest challenge and one I’m learning slowly how to handle. I will blog about some of the people and organizations that have inspired me and are motivating me in the world today. I’m not sure if optimism is something I really understand, on a bigger scale, but I will make a honest effort at it. More on this as the month progresses, I’m sure.

2: Searching.

As in, searching for/looking up information, or a person, or a resource, group, or anything else that isn’t readily or easily available. It could also mean searching for answers, or at least, better ways of articulating the questions. This month, I’ll blog about some uncanny, off-the-wall, and interesting bits of information that I find, and also about how to search for things on the internet.

3: The Sky.

Halley's Comet 1986

One of my earliest memories is of my dad taking us out near the airport to watch for Halley’s Comet as it came within viewing range from Earth in early 1986. He explained to me what a comet was, and that the next time this ancient one came around I’d be in my 80′s. It was a mind-blowing thing for a 7 year old to discover. It made me appreciate from a very early age, the expanse of space and time, and how insignificant we really are in this grand, beautiful universe. Since then, my love for astronomy and cosmology has only increased. Some of my blog posts this month will revolve around this enduring passion of mine.

So, if you’re reading this and you’d like to comment, please do so, and let me know what “Look up” means to you.

A long but highly insightful conversation between acclaimed authors Salman Rushdie and Irshad Manji on the nature of belief, Islamism, the history of Islam and Quran, and what to do in a world full of crazies on both the Islamist side and the racist westerner side. Rational, thinking people of all varieties will enjoy this video… please watch in full, it’s worth it. Intelligent comments are welcome.

There’s been so much negativity surrounding Sarah Palin’s VP candidacy, I thought I’d try and find something to thank her for….
————————————–

Thank you, Sarah Palin
for taking women – and men -
back a few notches so fast
we all got whiplash.

Thank you Sarah Palin for proving feminism right;
For showing that men and women are truly equal.
That women can be just as stupid
as the stupidest of men.
Like the men running the country
for most of the past decade.
And of course, Condi too.

Thank you Sarah Palin,
for flashing your girly smile,
and throwing back that silly Northern twang;
Your beauty queen charms warm the limp, lonely hearts
of Bill O’Reillys and Karl Roves everywhere.
Thanks for being the prettiest beard
for frustrated Republicans still in the closet.

Thanks Sarah Palin for charging rape victims
for their own rape kits, while preaching to us all
the joys of cherishing our rape babies.
Because life is precious -
until hunting season, that is.

Thank you Sarah Palin for helping intelligent women
realize they are intelligent first, women after.
Thanks for helping smart men appreciate
smart women more than ever before.

Thanks Sarah Palin for making George W. Bush
look educated by comparison.
Thanks for making Cheney look saner -
at least he shoots at things at close range and
doesn’t make couch covers from their bodies.

Thanks Sarah for not blaming us mortals for climate change -
None of us was around 6,000 years ago
when you believe the Earth was created…
How could we know what caused climate change?

Thanks Sarah.
For everything you do.
With everything you say,
you are a reminder
for every girl and every woman
of the choice inside each of us.
The choice…
to be a smart, savvy, self-aware human being
or to be
just another jackass, with lipstick.

~Kiran Mehdee, 1 October, 2008

1. Live for the past.
2. Live for the future.
3. Think everything is always about you.
4. Think that you just don’t matter at all.
5. Believe that pills will solve all your problems.
6. Believe that pills are stupid and useless.
7. Do not let yourself change.
8. Believe that it is all your fault.
9. Believe that it is all other people’s fault.
10. Accept all the bad things you have heard, read or thought about you.
11. Deny any good things you have heard, read or thought about you.
12. Never think about other people’s problems.
13. Think that because you can’t do everything, you shouldn’t do anything.
14. Roll your eyes while reading this list.
15. When happiness comes, greet it with fear or guilt or resentment.
16. Think that you are or have bad luck.
17. Don’t express yourself creatively in any way.
18. Keep on trying to please and/or piss-off Mom and/or Dad.
19. Wait for someone else to come and save you.
20. Exercise only sporadically and only out of guilt.
21. Don’t make friends with silence.
22. Watch a lot of TV.
23. Stay away from Nature.
24. Think of everything in terms of black or white.
25. Take all, give nothing.

~Kiran Mehdee [June 2008]

Journalist Mark Glaser has an article up on the pbs.org MediaShift blog about the changing face of media in the 21st century. He talks about how both traditional media and new media must learn from each other, and merge the best practices. I like the point he makes about the techno-genie… once it’s out of the bottle, no one can put it back in. We’ve seen the same phenomena with all technological breakthroughs: TV, radio, Film, Nuclear weapons, cell phones, you name it.

No longer do people rely on TV Guide to program their lives around their favorite TV shows. Now they can use a digital video recorder or watch shows on-demand online and fit their TV watching into their lives. The people are taking control and watching, and listening to what they want when they want — and on the devices they want. And that goes for TV as well as radio and audio, with podcasts allowing people to listen on their own time and fast-forward or rewind shows at will.

What do we gain? We get more control of our lives and our media experience and we are no longer slaves to programmers. But what do we lose? We are losing shared experiences, where we all watch the same shows at the same time, or watch the same sporting events together. And our “water cooler” talk has a new etiquette, where we must tell people not to ruin our favorite shows because we’re taping it to watch later!

I stumbled across this little brain candy in Wired.com’s archives.

One of my favourites:

TIME MACHINE REACHES FUTURE!!! … nobody there …
- Harry Harrison

from kcd – A webcomic of romance, sarcasm, math, and language – By Randall Munroe

Found this off this blog:

StoryCorps:

StoryCorps is a national project to instruct and inspire people to record each others’ stories in sound.

Listen to audio interviews in a collection of personal stories. Some real interesting stuff…

“There is a time to let things happen, and a time to make things happen.”
–Emerson

“Success is getting what you want. Happiness is wanting what you get.”
–Dale Carnegie

“Talent hits a target no one else can hit; Genius hits a target no one else can see.”
–Arthur Schopenhauer

“Different is not necessarily better but better is always different.”
–Hugh Lendrum

“You often meet your destiny on the road you’ve taken to avoid it.”

“Imagination is the beginning of creation. You imagine what you desire, you will what you imagine and at last you create what you will.”
–George Bernard Shaw

“Don’t believe everything you think.”

“It is not the strongest of the species who survive, not the most intelligent, but those who are the most adaptive to change.”
–Charles Darwin

“We can have peace if we let go of wanting to change the past and wanting to control the future.”
–Lester Levinson

“Tell me and I’ll forget. Show me and I’ll remember. Involve me and I’ll understand.”
–Confucius

“Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man’s character, give him power.”
–Abraham Lincoln

“Everything that irritates us about others can lead us to an understanding of ourselves.”
–Carl Jung

“Your vision will become clear only when you can look into your own heart. Who looks outside, dreams, who looks inside awakes.”
–Carl Jung

“Wisdom is knowing what path to take next… Integrity is taking it.”

“Carefully watch your THOUGHTS, for they become your WORDS. Manage and watch your WORDS, for they will become your ACTIONS. Consider and judge your ACTIONS, for they have become your HABITS. Acknowledge and watch your HABITS, for they shall become your VALUES. Understand and embrace your VALUES, for they become YOUR DESTINY.”
–Mahatma Gandhi

“Criticism is something we can avoid easily — by saying nothing, doing nothing, and being nothing.”
–Aristotle

“Destiny is not a matter of chance, it is a matter of choice. It is not a thing to be waited for, it is a thing to be achieved.”
–William Jennings Bryan

“When I despair, I remember that all through history, the way of truth and love has always won. There have been tyrants and murderers, and for a time they seem invincible, but in the end, they always fall. Think of it, always.”
–Mahatma Gandhi

“To be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you something else is the greatest accomplishment.”
–Ralph Waldo Emerson

“Whenever you find you are on the side of the majority, it is time to pause and reflect.”
–Mark Twain

“We do not see things as they are. We see them as we are.”

“It’s easier to fight for one’s principles than to live up to them.”
–Adler

“The greatest deception men suffer is from their own opinions.”
–Leonardo da Vinci

“When we are no longer able to change a situation… we are challenged to change ourselves.”
–Victor Frankl

“There is only one thing more painful than learning from experience and that is not learning from experience.”
–Archibald McLeish

“Knowing is not enough; we must apply. Willing is not enough; we must do.”
–Johann von Goethe

“You don’t get in life what you want. You get what you are.”
–Les Brown

“Anything in life that we don’t accept will simply make trouble for us until we make peace with it.”
–Shakti Gawain

“If you think that education is expensive, try ignorance.”
–Derek Botz

“He who asks is a fool for five minutes, but he who does not ask remains a fools for life.”
–Chinese proverb

“Opinions founded on prejudice are always defended with the greatest violence.”

“History teaches us that men and nations behave wisely only after they have exhausted all other alternatives.”
–Abba Eban

“A nation that values it’s privileges above its principles soon loses both.”
–Eisenhower

“Talk sense to a fool and he calls you foolish.”
–Euripedes

“What luck for the rulers that men do not think.”
–Adolph Hitler

“Those who make peaceful reform impossible will make violent revolution inevitable.”
–J. F. Kennedy

“Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.”
–Martin Luther King

“It’s never too late to be what you might have been.”
–George Elliot

“If you tell the truth, you don’t have to remember anything.”
–Mark Twain

“The deepest longing in the human breast is the desire for appreciation.”
–William James

“Intuition is not contrary to reason, but outside the province of reason.”
–Carl Jung

“Life is a daring adventure or it is nothing at all.”
–Helen Keller