State of the Union

Apparently there's some guy in washington who talked to a lot of other guys in washington about the state of some union. I say apparently, because from what i heard, that guy wasn't saying anything that had much substance. I can't create that much spin on a backhanded dropshot.

My dad watched it. No wonder he calls it the 'boob toob'. I'm not sure if he's talking about the people watching it or the people on it. Pops said he watches PBS about 90% of the time. I said i'd get cable (jokingly of course) so he could watch the history and discovery channel. Then he said he'd only watch PBS 80% of the time. Touche (pronounced:Twoshay)

I don't know about politics. Seems like a lot of people positioning and frontin and trying to sound good. And really they're not saying anything. Suits on a street corner.

If i were president, all my cabinet people would have some kind of engineering degree. Why? Because at least you have to think rigorously and precisely about what you're studying. I have a history degree. I took other humanities classes. It's mostly drivel. Someone trying to put a slightly different perspective on the same thing. I get more perspectives on things walking down a street than reading a book.

Let's face it, most people write 75% drivel in any kind of writing class, and you can't BS your way through a calculus function. But if I were president . . . more drivel

What else? . . .

Audiophile, . . . well ipodophiles at least

The last post was about visual somethings, this is about the sounds.

Itunes, it is what i live and breathe by.

So i got BeaTunes (www.beatunes.com ) . It's a program that finds all the beats per minute of your songs and puts them in itunes. I had thought that was great back when i had a kilo of songs (a thousand songs for you americans). And i've been pining and pouting about not having that at my now 6kilos of songs (six thousand for you slow americans). Enter stage right, with pyrotechnics BeaTunes.

Not only can it do beats per minute (bpm), it also listens to the song to figure out what other songs it sounds like. So you can do moods that cross genres. However, this sounds a little shaky. I like Pandora, and i know they have professional musicians analyzing songs. i'm not sure that this 6mb program approach, much less reach and surpass that. But as we speak the program is going through my whole itunes library, so we'll see after a week or two. I'll create a couple playlists and burn through them to see what this program's got. I'll admit, it's probably one of the first web-based programs [non-box] i think i'll buy.

The disappointing thing is that i have no real home computer. I juggle a couple different computers, so i don't know how to have it analyze my ipod's songs. I think i'll have to bite the bullet and erase all my ratings and playcount. That should put things back on an even basis, cuz John legend is in heavy rotation and has like 26 plays whereas marvin is hovering around 6-7. I wish there was a way to corret that.

But the re-rating isn't so bad. A few months ago i erased all my 3* (3 star) songs cuz my library was getting bohemouth. And i wanted to re-rate all my stars to more align with the netflix rating system: hated it, 2didn't like it, 3 liked it, 4 really liked it, 5 loved it. I had been rating 2's and 3's together and only listened much to 4's and 5's. But that reduces my listening experience. So this'll give me a fresh start.

Visual Artists Unite, or not

So, i've been on a little bit of an artist kick again. I just bought "art as experience" by John Dewey (which reminds me i lost a library book). This is a pretty cool book but i've only read the first two chapters. It's amazing how people from 100 years ago write so differently from today. It used put me off, i.e. i thought the works were too inaccessible, but now it's kind of seductive of how to put myself in that kind of thinking.

What prompted this book? A comic book no less. A few months ago when i was teaching myself to draw, i bought a book "Perspective! for comic book artists" by Scott McCloud. It was great. Most of the time in drawing books you see either a lot of words about a few pictures, or a lot of pictures with few words. So you're either inndated or starved for explanation. With comics as his medium of explanation, he shows you in frame-by-frame/step-by-step how to do everything you wanted with perspective. Then i realized that comics was simply the perfect medium for such instruction (art- and i say that with tongue in cheek).

So i later read his book (got from the Library- freedom ahoy!) "Understanding Comics" which was a tour-de-force (always wanted to write that) about comics as art, not just art's bastard child. He explored the medium, through the medium. For instance, remember how seductive it was in the Sound of Music when they would sing about music using music? Well, its kinda the same thing, only comics and comics, and the thrill is still there. So he examines comics with a depth and breadth i've never thought about. Apparently he does it with a depth and breadth that most comic artists haven't seen, hence the rave reviews.

So i'm on an art kick. So when i was in the bookstore browsing for something that would tweak my interest, I came upon this book "art as expereince". So far his main point is about how art has been abstracted and bastardized from everyday life. And only in the context of everyday life can we really understand art. Point seems cool, but it's a long book and i hope he has some other insightful stuff to say. incidentally this helps round out my philosophical readings, which has been a kick of mine for a while.

Obama for emperor. . .not

So, what's new?

Obama for Emperor. . . he hath no clothes, no substance, only that politically seductive smile. The only clean guy in the mudslinging fight. I read his second book. He's playing the role of a referee, which is great and what we 'need'. But how is he going to ref the superbowl when he's new to high-school ball? The book is good. But after the first three chapters there isn't any more substance to be had. Rather the book is about outlining his perspective, not his plan. Think of it as a book about the art, not art itself.

What do i think? Gore for president, Obama as vice pres. This would give Gore another run, with a highly seductive candidate on his heels. And this will also give Obama the necessary experience to know what the big house is like.

Beware, watch out for Gingrich. He'll be late in comin, but he'll be blowin full steam ahead when he throws his hat into the race. His late start will place him in the role as a new/fresh face (cough) in a field of people already being criticized.

NLp and the Landmark Forum

This is something i posted to a yahoo group a while back. It's been on my mind so i cut and pasted it here for all to see. The one change i remember that i wanted to make was the use of the word "metaphysics", i wanted to substitute it with the word "ontology". There apparently is a big difference between what these two words refer to. Metaphysics is well, metaphysicx. Ontology is a sub-set of metaphysics that deals with the 'beingness' of humans.

I'm actually currently participating in "Landmard Education". I took
the Landmark Forum in Aug 2004, and I am currently a coach in one of
its programs. So take my information as pertaining to the Landmark
Forum in its current form, not the Est training, which by the accounts
of many people is vastly different from the current Landmark Forum.

I've also been wondering about the commonalities between LE/Est and
NLP. Apparently both had some involvement with the Esalen institute
(where Gregory Bateson resided in his later years). I was actually
going to email Steve A to inquire as to whether he knew/knows about
any associations bewteen the two. I figured that this was somewhat
plausible as Grinder and Bandler were reportedly voracious about who
and how many people they modeled. An aside: I was talking to one of
the professors or whatever from the Gestalt institute in cleveland and
he said that B&G modeled one of the heads of their Gestalt center, but
couldn't grasp the complexity of what she did (i say that tongue in
cheek, but he didn't), and that conversation had me think it plausible
that B&G were more voracious in their modeling than i had previously
thought.

Back on topic. . . from a philosophical stanpoint, the Landmark Forum
is a metaphysical conversation while NLP is an epistemological
conversation. I've found that realizing this difference pretty much
gives rise to cognitively similar systems, but vastly different
applications.

Both systems subscribe to something like the Korzybsian distinction
between map and territory (in Landmark parlance that's 'your story'
and 'what happens/ed'). Both systems understand that language creates
reality (through sorting, filtering and pointing). Both utilize the
difference between descriptive and evaluative language. Landmark also
emphasizes the category and use of 'declarative' language (i
will/shall make this happen). Both systems have significantly
atemporal patterns: in NLP we have timeline therapy and in LE we
have 'distinguishing the past as the past' and both of these can be
seen as variants of Korzybski's 'time-indexing' [not time-binding i
think].

A few more broad categorical generalizations: Landmark's interactions
deal mostly with philosophical stances (eudaemonia) while NLP
demonstrates and teaches people how to manipulate your own brain to do
things. Landmark's focus is on a person's "way of being" while NLP
focuses on a "how a person functions". Both systems have their
strengths, and i think they dovetail wonderfully.

For me, Landmark encourages one to create their own goals, purpose and
individual teleology, while NLP teaches you how to solidify,
communicate and enact those goals. I found NLP lacking in helping me
clarify and push me to think what i wanted to create in my life,
whereas i find Landmark lacking in telling me the details of how to
make it happen on a minute-by-minute basis. Metaphorically speaking,
it's the difference between being a leader (LE/compass) and a manager
(NLP/map). Leaders select directions, managers show you how to get
there.

I think another 'one-up' Landmark has on NLP is that its trainings are
relatively cheaper and 'closer to home'. What i mean by that is i
don't have to shell out five grand for a one-time seminar which by
many reports may or may not be worth it and then be relatively
divorced from 'the work' and 'the practitioners' until i proceed to
the next level (master prac). Whereas with Landmark, i have a 'center'
in that i can go to for various seminars (applications), as well as a
community of like-minded people. Also with Landmark, all of the senior
leaders i've come across are acroos-the-board high-quality and i'm
aware of the intensity of their leadership track(ing) to insure high-
quality trainings. And at Landmark i experience an almost ferverent
interest for people to heal and develop their relationships with their
families, friends and communities.

Co-incidentally, if you believe in co-incidences, the NLP book that
most closely relates to Landmark Education is Steve's Transforming
Your Self. I found it to be a relatively literal description on how to
do what Landmark's programs encourages you to do. That being said, i
would still suggest/endorse anyone taking the Landmark Forum, there's
a vast difference between the words on a book and the territory of
live training.

One other difference i see between is NLP trainings seem geared toward
creating practitioners 'only'. So there's a bit of purity of the work,
but personally, my own 'do this for what' isn't answered by the broad
promises of 'communicate better' and 'run your own brain' and etc.
Some/most people don't want the level/intensity of practitioner
training. I mean, really, it's real inconvenient to become a
practitioner. What's up with a small application workshop in 3 or so
days that gets my whole life clicking? This is coming from some one
who did a 14 day training with Meta-States people. I really didn't get
the passion to deal with life powerfully from that training, whereas
after taking the LF i saw where i wasn't being passionate about
different areas of my life. Landmark presents seminars geared
specifically to different ares of your life, with the possiblity of
further development and education in being a practitioner/leader in
the field.

Well, there's the kitchen sink!

Boot