Archive - Feb 2008
February 18th
Dream
Submitted by Aldon Hynes on Mon, 02/18/2008 - 09:37Last night I drifted in and out of a strange dream. I woke up this morning half-groggy in a dream like state. As the grogginess lifts details of the dream evaporate. Yet the key aspects remain.
Somehow, I had ended up on a small island somewhere near the North Pole. I had been canoeing down near England. My plan had been to head back to the U.S., but instead of heading west, I got turned around and headed north. (It was a dream, so the idea of canoeing from England to either the North Pole or the United States in an afternoon didn’t seem strange at all).
As we explored the small fishing communities on these islands, we were welcomed in. I explained the wrong turn, but how interested I was in visiting the communities. We were welcomed in and ate with the locals at long plain tables. We found places to stay and set up our plans for further exploration.
I will note that the weather was quite temperate. I don’t know how much this was because it was summertime, or how much it was because of global warming. I did recently listen to a radio report about the effect of global warming on small communities in Alaska, so that may have fed into the dream. In addition, the upcoming trip to the AGPA annual meeting in Washington may have influenced my dream. What will the conference be like? Will it lead to some sort of turn that may change the direction of my life? Also, my discussions with many different people in Second Life, where going from England to the United States or the North Pole is a simple teleport; even quicker than an afternoon canoeing. Like my expectations of the AGPA annual meeting, Second Life has provided a rich set of experiences that may also lead to unexpected further explorations.
Other reactions?
GimpGirl in Second Life
Submitted by Aldon Hynes on Mon, 02/18/2008 - 09:04
GimpGirl, a group for women with disabilities kicks off its presence in SL. I am a long time friend of one of the members and was glad to see them establish a presence in Second Life. They've been around for ten years on sites like LiveJournal, Facebook, and MySpace. It will be interesting to see how they tie together the activities across platforms.
More information can be found at www.gimpgirl.com.
February 17th
Finding Obama’s Reality Check at a gathering of disabled people in Second Life
Submitted by Aldon Hynes on Sun, 02/17/2008 - 09:59Last night, as I sat at a gathering of disabled people in Second Life, friends were providing me quotes from Sen. Obama’s speech at the Wisconsin Founders Dinner via Twitter. The juxtaposition was striking.
Those who read my blog know that I write about whatever strikes my fancy, from technology, to Second Life, to group dynamics, to politics, to the personal. I seek to draw themes from all of them to mix them together and the combination of Obama’s speech and the talk in Second Life provides a wonderful opportunity.
In politics, I supported Sen. Edwards this time around. Sen. Clinton and Sen. Obama both seem a little too conservative for me, a little too closely connected to the corporate interests and existing power structure. Yet the current criticisms of Obama actually lead me to be more supportive of him. His critics talk about all that he has to offer is just words. Well, as a writer, I find that criticism offensive. Legislation is, after all, just words. The landmark civil rights bill of the 1960s is just words. More importantly, it is the ‘just words’ of Martin Luther King, Jr. that helped bring about such legislation. The Letter from a Birmingham Jail was just words. The “I have a dream” speech was just words. No, if you want to alienate people, disparaging other for having just words seems like a good starting point. Maybe that is part of why Oprah has endorsed Obama. She realizes that words are important, that they can move people to action.
Yet more importantly is the question of Barack Obama needing a ‘reality check’. Personally, I think we’ve had a few too many reality checks of late. We do need a little more hope. Dr. King’s letter from Birmingham jail was a response to those asking for reality checks back then. Critics were calling the actions of Dr. King that landed him in Birmingham jail, “unwise and untimely” and the calls for a reality check on Sen. Obama sound very similar.
So, let’s take a reality check from an unlikely and unreal venue, Second Life. Second Life is a place where people can create avatars, representations of themselves, that interact with one another. These avatars can be different from how people are in real life. The unattractive can become more attractive, people can become animals, they can change genders and they can experience disabilities or freedom from disabilities that they can’t in real life. The woman with a fused backbone can jump on a trampoline, a wheelchair bound person fighting MS can go down a waterslide.
February 16th
Institutional Memory
Submitted by Aldon Hynes on Sat, 02/16/2008 - 20:38I believe it was at SXSW Interactive 2005, that I was on a panel exploring the future of democracy, deliberative, direct and digital. As we explored the role of political parties, the idea of institutional memory came up, and it seems as if the Internet is changing the way we maintain institutional memory.
In 2003 and 2004, I was a volunteer in Gov. Dean’s presidential campaign. I established many close friendships during that time. When Gov. Dean decided to end his presidential bid, many of us reached out to each other online. We dealt with our grief about seeing the person we thought would best lead the country leave the race. We talked about what Gov. Dean’s delegates should do, and whether we should still vote for him in the primary, or if not, whom we should support.
We vented our frustrations about the sort of campaigns other candidates had run. We complained about the media, and most importantly, we sought ways to remain together to work on the issues that were important to us.
During that time quite a few mailing lists and websites formed. Sometimes there were conflicts between people from different groups. After all, we were all people that had cared passionately about Gov. Dean and the issues he stood for, and we cared passionately for how things would be handled afterwards.
People looked created different legal entities, 501(c)3’s, 501(c)4’s, State PACs, Federal PACs, 527s, and so on. Dean for America shut down, and a new organization, Democracy for America emerged.
I wasn’t involved with the Kucinich campaign in 2004, but it seemed like a similar process happened there, and out of it the Progressive Democrats of America emerged. PDA and DFA had a lot of similar goals and looked at ways to work together, me, and many of my friends ended up getting involved in both.
Now, it is 2008. This time around, I was a Sen. Edwards supporter. He has now suspended his campaign, and I’ve been invited to join two mailing lists of Edwards supporters, in addition the dozen or so I had been on during the campaign. I’ve been asked to participate in various online sites and hear discussions about other ones yet to emerge. Like in 2004, I, and all of us, wait to hear what Sen. Edwards will suggest we do going forward.
February 15th
1983 Journal: Jan 29-31
Submitted by Aldon Hynes on Fri, 02/15/2008 - 18:31January 29, 1983: What am I looking for? Having spent a domestic day and reading Bukowski. I push myself hard until I burnout, then I feel guilty about burnout. Stardust memories. Non Sequitur of locations. Existentialism met with a laugh, and loving ladies lost on lithium. Oh well. In my despair, existential and verbicidal, I pour myself a stiff one, and prepare to cry myself to sleep. Woody Allen recalls the transcendent moment from the existential despair.
January 30, 1983: Coffee with Dave Sturman, “Since I got into EST, I don’t get into intellectual discussions, I mean, like so what?” Searching for a sense of religious community. Dogwood festival in Tennessee. When I pass through Miami, the sixth borough.
January 31, 1983: Bukowski – writer’s blocks and sex. And I ask myself, what do I have to say? My life seems horribly ordinary. And yet, I’ll go to the Opera Thursday with a beautiful woman I met on the trains.
