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Mihaly Csiksczentmihalyi says:
Commencement of learning something is a flow situation – everything is new and flow absorption is present as one struggles to master the skill. As one progresses, either boredom will ensue because there is no more challenge (the skill has been learned at that level) or anxiety occurs because a bigger challenge than […]

“I understand that I am, putting it mildly, a controversial figure,” Mr. Wolfowitz told reporters. “But I hope as people get to know me better they will understand that I really do believe deeply in the mission of the bank.”
Does he have any idea of the implications this statement has on the World Bank? If […]

When I tried to create yesterday’s post, Blogger was down. Guess I should back up these posts…

Whereas his chapter on tangible computing looked at the intersections of the individual and computer design, this chapter focuses on how sociology informs the computer design (broadly defined to include physical and interface design). As such, it is heavily “Intro to Ethnogrphy”.
[NOTE: While this may be new and significant in HCI, it’s foundational for […]

Let me start by acknowledging that my life is good: mentally, physically, spiritually — all good. Now let me revisit a controversial statement I made a few years ago that seriously tested a friendship and, in part, necessitated my needing to find a new apartment and roommate (which led to my current beautiful lakefront apartment! […]

In the winter months, when the Madison Farmer’s Market is held indoors at the Senior Center, there’s a weekly breakfast for $6. Not much choice (meat or veggie), but the food is generally pretty good. Today it was excellent. Cheers to Ben Hunter and crew (often found at the Catacombs), and to Sophia’s for the […]

I momentarily lost track of Identity, or conflated it into big-D Discourse, and should not have, as conflation backgrounds and underrepresents the agency of self in order to foreground and emphasize the power of the groups one inhabits. However, in order for the notion of bending Discourse to work (and it does everyday), action must […]

Working on moving from HTML tables to CSS to handle the layout of my sites. Some frustration as I wrap my mind around the shift. and it may be a while before I get it all out there. Ah well, I have helpful friends.

There’s a difference between a successful risk-taker, and a risk-taker who succeeds. I think the latter has a better sense of timing than I usually do. I’m typically hesitant, and lose out because I wait too long in acting on whatever opportunity is in front of me. Then it passes. On the other hand, I […]

On Wisconsin Public Radio this morning, Joy Cardin spoke with state representative Gregg Underheim about his bid to be the next State Superintendent of Public Instruction. He said his educational philosophy was “student-centered” rather than “teacher-centered” and that it aligned with the philosophy of E.D. Hirsch, the founder of the Core Knowledge Sequence. However, Core […]

In my Friday post, I may have neglected to acknowledge the neccessity and healing attributes of still moments in life. And it is these moments of stillness that I find in meditation and a meditative life. In the river of life metaphor, these are times when you bail out the water in the bottom of […]

Ken Perlin’s site and tools like the Visual Thesaurus are the types of interactive/exporatory software (can I use the term “game”? How about “play”?) that I’d like to fill the internet with. Perlin’s stuff is the basis for the type of animation software that I’d like to see Pixar/Apple put out — an Animation iLife […]

At the St. Francis House tonight, on University ave, there was a talk on Buddhism, given by senior Kadampa teacher, Gen-la Dekyong. I thought it’d be an interesting followup to last week’s talk at the Unitarian Meeting house by Claude Anshin Thomas, so I went. A basic premise I heard over and over was, “If […]

Lots of people are far too serious about things they don’t need to be. Take, for example, presenting with technology. You should plan for it to fail. If it doesn’t fail, it’s a minor miracle worth celebrating and offering another small sacrifice to the tech gods. When it does fail, don’t fret. People understand. Just […]

The big reasons for doing this blog were: 1. to “experience” the blogger lifestyle (understanding, of course, that the “thing” about blogs is that they showcase individuality — still there are obvious patterns among them). 2a. as a repository for my embodiment reading notes that I can access from any computer. 2b. same, that I […]

Following up, Amy had asked of my practice, and I didn’t really answer. What I got out of Richard Bach’s Illusions, way back in the day, was that spiritual practice might best be a private thing, so I’ve tried to take a “live and let live” attitude since then — only really falling out of […]

Really! I read it on someone’s blog. Something about synapses firing in sync. It must be true. And if not, well, it sounds like a good enough reason to keep on keepin’ on.

A history of what could be, starting at the Palo Alto Research Center (PARC) with ubiquitous computing: computation by the inch (badges, pagers, coffee cups, etc. all over the place), foot (paper-sized, per person), and yard (desk or whiteboard, per room) (p. 30); EuroPARC’s digital desk (p. 33); virtual and augmented reality devices; Universty of […]

Since I so enjoyed ch. 4 of Where the Action Is, and since it paralleled (or promised parallels to) much of what most interested me in Michael Eisenberg’s research, and because I sense hints of the same three pillars (or components, or axes?) that I use to structure my own research, I’ve decided to read […]

Claude Anshin Thomas, a Vietnam combat soldier, Zen monk & peace activist discussed “At Hell’s Gate: A Soldier’s Journey from War to Peace” tonight. A followup conversation with Amy, Bianca, and Connie really helped me developed and embody (see how nonchalantly I throw that word around now?) the talk, and I owe them great thanks.
First, […]

My friend Amy is studying Landscape Architecture, and currently working on a map of space in a cultural place (this phrase is not accurate). She went to the library this morning and diagrammed out the lounge area, with sitting tables, couches, coffee tables, etc. I was very interested and overly animated about it, of course, […]

There’s a certain comfort in routine, because routine *is* essentially certainty. It’s a place we exist, on multiple levels or conceptualization of “place” — place as geography, social circles, schedule, etc. Routine is recognized patterns. It is “low cognitive load,” to use some of the terminology that David Feldon used yesterday, or “crystalized intelligence.” In […]

To sum up, the new MIT AR game engine is a dream that I dreamed of since I designed my first game. Now it is possible to create a history game (or many other narrative-based games, inquiry-based games, science games or even second language acquisition games) with the affordances built into this new game engine.A […]

They say it’s the little things that make a difference. Well, yeah. My Dansko Professionals broke. The sole just creased and tore over the past few weeks. That makes them about dead — super flexible, and the leather is now ripping. So I ordered new ones from Sierra Trading Post, and they’ve arrived. What a […]

I’m at Ground Zero reading about embodiment, working on a post I started yesterday about it. My battery is about dead (metaphorically and literally), and I need to go home, take the dogs out, eat, then leave again and go to work until 4-ish, come home, take the dogs out, meet a friend for dinner, […]

Chapter 4 in Paul Dourish’s (2001) book is titled “Being-in-the-World” and it outlines the ideas of embodiment by Edmund Husserl, Martin Heidegger, Alfred Schutz, and Maurice Merleau-Ponty. He first gives what he calls a “naive” definition of embodiment:
Embodiment means possessing and acting through a physical manifestation in the world (p. 100)
and then offers a […]

It’s far past bedtime, but there’s a good idea in surrounding oneself with inspiration and toys. This stems from a presentation I saw today. Michael Eisenberg (from U Colorado’s Center for Lifelong Learning and Design (L3D) gave a short talk on learning Math and Science through engagement with crafts. Here’s the abstract he supplied:
At the […]

Warning: This is a dream, and as such, probably not interesting to anyone but me. Additionally, it was written up at 3am, so it’s not well crafted. You have been warned.
I was a graduate student, loosely involved in a video game lab. I was not a primary researcher, or secondary, or even tertiary, but sort […]

Until recently, I’ve been lucky to be relatively SPAM-free. I’d get maybe 5/week. Meanwhile I had friends who would sheepishly grumble about the hundreds of penile- and breast- and libido- enhancement emails they’d get, embarrassed that people would think that they must have gone to “some website” or signed up to “some listserv” to deserve […]

Many years ago I was inspired by the story of the Emperor’s new clothes. I’ve revisited the story numerous times from different angles, arguing, for example, that nudity can be construed as fashion, or that the story would have been more poignant had the emperor and his tailors held their ground and continued to insist […]