By the Letter E

Let me begin by stating that I have not had such difficulty assimilating the contents of an article in quite some time. I am referencing the WIRED article written in 2012 by Bruce Sterling titled An Essay on the New Aesthetic.  As I read, I found it difficult to keep up with all of the various and turbulent metaphors in the reading.  It was like watching a bouncing super ball in a concrete room. Did you see what I did there? I began to wonder if in fact Bruce Sterling really knew what he was trying to talk about in his descriptions of the New Aesthetic.  I managed to gather a few key points from his essay that make an attempt at defining the New Aesthetic. The article is older, but the ideas presented are timeless. The New Aesthetic is according to Sterling; A creative movement A Collective Internet based Built by and for working creatives All very true points, I like to take this one step further and say that not only is it these descriptive terms but t...

In 1980 a typical school day in Central Texas consisted of reading, writing on paper, the utilization of pencils, pens, loads of construction paper and glue to get a lesson across to the students.  The days when the lesson included a trip to the AV supply room to wheel in a large television set propped up on a metal stand with the latest technological marvel, the VCR attached were added bonuses to the learning schema. These days our children are living in an advanced society that few could have imagined back then.  While most children were learning how to walk and talk back then these days one can find children easily perusing their parents' cell phones or tablets using newly refined motor skills like swipe and touch.  Never has technology given our children such an appealing opportunity to learn.  Why then are there so many educational systems in the world that are reluctant to embrace such technology in the classrooms?  Smart phones provide an o...

Few things can hold my attention these days.  In a society where attention is becoming a valuable commodity, an online presence is extremely important.  So, in an online environment where the world is literally at your fingertips, how does one come to learn about what is really out there for the surfing?  Well one could technically start at the letter a and work your way through the alphabet making up words and adding the .com at the end to see what comes up.  You could do a google search and hope for the best OR you could log in to a site called StumbleUpon .  StumbleUpon allows the user to select a list of interests and customize the 'stumble'.  When you click on the Stumble button the website then sends a billion little feelers out and pulls back several different options for you to view.  As websites open up onto your screen you have the option to 'like' them or not.  If you like them, they are saved to your profile for future use if you do no...

Searching for a job can be a daunting task for someone who has not been in the workforce for quite some time, has been out of work for awhile, OR if you have been in one position so long that you don't really know where to start once the 'end' has come.  I find myself in the initial category of having been out of work for awhile.  I allowed my spouse to do all of the working and the bringing home of the bacon so to speak.  This situation has it's good and it's bad points.  The good being you don't have to pay for child care if you have children, you save money on gas and other work expenses and you can concentrate on other pursuits like furthering your education.  The bad (and I'm going REALLY bad here), if your spouse loses his/her job, dies or decides to dissolve your union and you are unprepared without a job or insurance YOU are left with a huge mess.  Many people think it is easy to acquire a job and will give you the whole 'oh things will get bette...

I learned a new skill today.  Well not new per se, but new perhaps to my technical capabilities since I haven't had to use it until today. I had my first online job interview utilizing the Skype platform.  I have used the face time app on my iphone before so it's not like this type of communication is completely foreign to me, however today was the first time that I had an actual...er..virtual face to face meeting with a recruiter.  As a kid I used to watch episodes of star trek or cartoons where people communicated face to face via their watch communicators or computer screens.  I think it's amazing that that technology is now here and is quickly becoming the normal more convenient way of doing business.  It was a quick conversation about the details of my resume, with the occasional blip in reception but over all it was a decent conversation using the technology.  I'm looking forward to calling everyone now, although I may want to take a few minutes ...