Archive - 2013
June 5th
Anticipating Glass
Submitted by Aldon Hynes on Wed, 06/05/2013 - 21:36There are times when I don't write a blog post because the idea is still formulating in my mind. There are times when I don't write a blog post because I just don't have time or am too tired. Then, there are times when I have a great blog post, or perhaps a few different ones, that I have to wait to write and post them because of other timing issues.
Today, I received a direct message on Twitter that basically wrote a blog post for me for my job. At the same it sets up potential interesting personal blog posts about Ingress, the arts, and traveling to New York. Friends who have been following closely probably know the background to these pending blog posts, but the posts will have to wait until the right time.
Until a couple final details fall into place, hopefully tomorrow, the blog posts will have to wait, no matter how hard it is for me and for others.
June 3rd
Writing Pace
Submitted by Aldon Hynes on Mon, 06/03/2013 - 21:50Exhausted, I sink into the large stuffed chair in the southwest corner of the living room. In the kitchen, on the stove, sits a two quart copper bottomed pan with tomorrows breakfast. I've taken to eating oatmeal most mornings, and recently we ran out of the quick rolled oats that I usually microwave first thing in the morning. I have a tin of steel cut oats from my mother's house and I'm following a recipe to cook the oats in the evening and warm them up in the morning. The pan, like the oats, also comes from my mother's house.
On the dining room table is a wooden bowl and a cookie press that came from my mothers house. All of these come from a different time and a different place. The dog lies quietly at the head of the stairs. Fiona is in bed, and Kim is on her way home from a very long day at work.
Today, as I write, I think about pacing. There is something frenetic about so much of social media, and for that matter, so much of twenty-first century life. People complain about how social media is replacing face to face interaction. From what I've seen, it is actually helping with face to face interaction. Online social media is the gateway drug to face to face social interaction. No, perhaps the real issue is pacing. We post a quick response to the latest social media, the way we might blurt something out without thinking. If only, we could slow down, be a little more contemplative and less reactive.
My mind drifts to another story idea. Will I write it over the summer? Will I shoot for a long form and try to write it during National Novel Writing Month? Already, the story is starting to take shape in my mind.
I close my eyes to think out the parts of the plot, the character development, and the setting. In the distance a bull frog calls. New thoughts mingle in my mind. Thoughts that I will carry with me to bed.
June 2nd
The Secular Millennial Transcendentalists
Submitted by Aldon Hynes on Sun, 06/02/2013 - 21:08The oppressive early June heat bore down so heavily on the asphalt parking lot, you could almost hear the quiet desperation as young men walked past the old Milk Row cemetery on their way to the market. Beyond the gravestones on the second floor of a nearby building people gathered to make something as a means of combating this ennui inspired existential despair.
Some gathered around a traditional printing press printing posters for a new book, Don't Make Art, Just Make Something by Miranda Aisling. In another corner, various musicians gathered around a keyboard with guitars, drums and a saxophone to make some music. In the center of the room, various guests make a 'something' village out of recycled materials, and the author flitted around the room, welcoming guests and signing copies of her new book.
Many of the guests knew each other from the local universities, museums, coffee shops and farm markets. It would be tempting to call them something like the secular millennial transcendentalists; steeped in an interesting mix nineteenth century transcendentalism, with the growing secularism of our age, and the digital technologies of the twenty-first century.
The Judeo-Christian tradition holds that we are created in the image of a creator. So, what does that make us, if not creators? Yet our schooling and work leads us further are further from being creators, leaving the creativity to the realm of specialized professionals called 'artists'.
Yet we don't have to buy into this division of labor that divides us from a core part of our being, this alienation from creativity which leads to the quiet desperation that Thoreau wrote about years ago, and can still be seen in the sweltering parking lots of Boston. Instead, we can just make something, anything, to keep that spark of creativity alive, to fight off the ennui inspired existential despair, and reunite us with the creative core of our being.
Don't Make Art, Just Make Something. If enough people do this, it could be a movement, a new awakening, and with the political, economic and environmental realities of today, it is something we desperately need.
June 1st
June
Submitted by Aldon Hynes on Sat, 06/01/2013 - 08:44Rabbit, Rabbit, Rabbit; the month of June rolls in with hot humid weather, and life slowing down, close enough to normal for me to write my typical start of the month blog post with the childhood invocation of good luck.
Today, being the first Saturday of June, the Essex Rotary Club is having their annual Shad Bake. I've never been to a shad bake before, but a friend has spoken highly of them, so I'm thinking about working this into the schedule if possible.
Then, tomorrow, Miranda's book, Don't Make Art, Just Make Something gets launched up in Somerville, MA. I'm really looking forward to the event. Miranda just received her Masters of Education in Community Art, and the book has a bit to say about the educational system. For example, see this video of Miranda reading an excerpt from her book.
It fits well with Sarah Darer Littman's Op-Ed in CTNewsJunkie, An Open Letter to Connecticut Students.
June will see the end of the 2013 legislative session in Connecticut. I'll complete the CT Health Foundations, Health Leadership Fellows program and be doing various social media presentations.
Perhaps most importantly, I'll be spending time, when possible, swimming.
May 31st
The Middletown, CT Ingress Business Development Council
Submitted by Aldon Hynes on Fri, 05/31/2013 - 20:44When I became an Ingress agent, nearly two months ago, the recruiting agent, a friend from New York City, expressed concern that I might not have as many opportunities to gain experience and rise through the ranks, as I would if I lived in the city. However, I work in Middletown, CT, which turns out to be a great place for advancement in Ingress.
Middletown is surrounded by many great places for farming, and when you have the supplies you need, Middletown is the place to gain experience. Within walking distance of Main St downtown and the Wesleyan campus are around forty portals, which change hands nearly daily. Two days ago, nearly every portal was green. This morning they were all blue. Now, the majority are green again.
On top of this, several of the portals are great eating locations, from O'Rourke's diner at the north end of Main St and NoRa's Cupcakes nearby, to Tschudin's Chocolates further down Main Street, there are many great places to eat. One place I really like is Mondo's which is just across from the green with half a dozen portals near by.
So, if you're looking for a pleasant time building up your experience with Ingress, please consider visiting Middletown.
This post is sponsored by the Middletown, CT Ingress Business Development Council.
