Social Media Character Creation
Submitted by Aldon Hynes on Thu, 05/30/2013 - 20:00The silence of snow, thought the man sitting behind the bus driver. If this were the beginning of a poem, he would have called the thing he felt inside him the silence of snow.
But this is a blog post, starting off with a quote from Snow by Orhan Pamuk, the 2006 Nobel Prize winner in Literature.
As I sit in my living room, trying to put words together, I pause to wonder, what is it that makes great literature? What is the process of crafting words to create a piece of art, and not just something like a blog post?
On Sunday, I am planning to go up to Boston for the launch of my daughter's book, Don't Make Art, Just Make Something. Making something is the starting point to making art, and perhaps a writing a blog post can be the starting point to writing a literary masterpiece.
But how often do we get stuck and just write a blog post? There have been years in a row that I've put up a blog post every day. Some were good, so were just going through the motions, doing the exercises. Of late, I haven't had time to write as much and that's frustrating. But I still wonder, what would it be like if we were pursuing literary merit in our blog writing?
It is hot in the living room as I write. There is a fan blowing and snow is far from my mind. Instead, my mind wanders further afield. We create our digital identities online, in blog posts, in updates on Facebook and Twitter. We are creating a character, perhaps a close replica of who we are when we see someone face to face, but perhaps not. What if we created this character with the same diligence of a Nobel Prize winner in Literature creating a character for her novel? What if we were more deliberate with our words?
Perhaps there would be less flame wars, less trolling, but perhaps not. Some of the most memorable characters in literature are curmudgeons, shysters, villains and many other sorts of less savory characters. Still, is that the character you want to create to portray yourself?
I sit back and look look at this blog post. It doesn't come close to painting a picture of the online character I wish to create. Perhaps it isn't art, but at least it is something.
Ingress
Submitted by Aldon Hynes on Wed, 05/29/2013 - 21:01A month and a half ago, my brother invited me to play the game Ingress. It is an augmented reality game played on Android smartphones. The smartphone becomes a 'scanner' searching for "exotic matter", the energy in the game, and portals. All of this is tied to physical locations and the GPS on the smartphone is an important component.
There are two factions in the game, The Enlightened and The Resistance. Each faction tries to capture portals belonging to the other side, and from there, establish links between portals. These portals can be linked together in fields. Besides attacking and linking portals, you can also "hack" portals, to gain game pieces. As with many games, you gain experience and go up in levels.
In the six weeks that I've been playing, I've made it up to level seven, out of eight levels. I've captured many portals, created fields, destroyed fields, and gotten to meet some interesting people.
Over this time, my style of play has changed as I've become more experienced, gained more items and gotten to know people.
Beyond this, there is a whole complicated backstory, with information in YouTube videos, Google+ pages, and at various gatherings. The game is still in closed beta, but invites are becoming easier to get.
From the geeky side, it is a fun game, merging a virtual world with the physical world. There is plenty of strategy to explore. Yet the creative side is perhaps more interesting. As with other virtual games, the players are participating in an unfolding story. I haven't followed this story that closely yet, and I'm curious about to what extent the game play effects the way the story unfolds are takes shape.
As I have more time, I'll continue to level up, visit new portals, get to know the community better and perhaps start following the storyline more closely. It is a strange new world that I find fascinating.
First Swim
Submitted by Aldon Hynes on Sat, 05/25/2013 - 16:37It is been a rough… It seems like I could fill that in; week, month, spring, year. I sold my late mother's house this month, saw two of my daughters graduate from college and have been more than busy enough at work as well. So, I was looking forward to Memorial Day Weekend, the cultural start of summer as a good turning point, a chance to slow down, relax, and perhaps get things back on track.
Monday, the weather forecast looked okay. There was a chance of thunderstorms throughout the week, but by Saturday, it was supposed to be nice. At the annual town meeting, I ran into the head of the town golf club. I told him my family was looking forward to being the first ones in the pool on Saturday. He assured me that the pool would be ready and he was looking forward to another summer.
The turnout at the town meeting was very light, no where close to a quorum. There were no comments made on the budget and the meeting was over in a matter of minutes. It seems like people are fairly pleased with this years budget.
After the preliminary town budget meeting, our First Selectman passed away unexpectedly. On this Monday, the father of the town's pool director passed away.
On Saturday morning, the storms continued. It was rainy and the temperature was in the mid-forties. There was no thunder or lightning, so we headed over to the pool to see if it would still be open.
When we arrived, the gate was locked. We stopped at the pro shop to ask if they would be opening the pool today. We were told that the pool director was there with a couple lifeguards and one of the folks from the pro shop headed off to find them.
Soon we were chatting with the pool director. My wife asked after his father, which is how we found out about the death. The funeral was last Thursday, and now, the pool director was making his efforts to move forward into the summer season.
With the gates unlocked and a lifeguard in huddling in her chair underneath the parasol being used as an umbrella, my wife, daughter and I dove in. A brisk breeze blew the mist rising off the pool away from the splashes of the falling rain.
The pool is heated. With the cold rain, the pool wasn't as warm as many patrons would call for, but it was warmer than the ocean on Cape Cod in the summer and we swam for around half an hour. I needed that work out.
Afterwards, we went to the showers to rinse the chlorine, and cold from our bodies. The pool director pulled me aside. "I know you came here to have a good time with your family," he said. "But I want to let you know how important was for me to have your family swimming here this morning."
Something - #DMAJMS
Submitted by Aldon Hynes on Wed, 05/22/2013 - 06:46I sit here again to confront my old nemesis, the blank screen, as I have so many mornings before. It has been an ongoing battle of many years, especially during that time when I was putting up at least one blog post a day, every day, for years in a row. It is a common problem many of us face, how do we get started? It is more of a problem when what we are doing is very public, like a blog post. What will my readers think? Will this be a profound statement? Will this be art? Will this be just something that fills the page?
I've often ended up writing blog posts that lack profundity, that I'm sure various people reading it will wonder why I even bothered spending the time writing it. My daughter's master's thesis and upcoming book, Don't' Make Art, Just Make Something, captures an idea, actually, many ideas, about getting started.
Yet I'd like to suggest that many of us have already started. How many of you have doodled on the sides of various pieces of paper? I doodled a lot more when I was younger. How many of you arrange your room or prepare a meal as a creative outlet? For me, one of my creative outlets is paper clip art.
I've always fidgeted. I've often take paper clips and bent them into new creative shapes. Yesterday, at work, I took a few paper clips to make a miniature abstract paperclip sculpture. I then arranged it in front of a BuddhaBoard my daughter had gotten me for Christmas, which I drew a question mark on. I placed a penny in front of the whole layout and cleared the area of my desk around it.
Perhaps it isn't art, maybe it is, but at least it is something, something that conquers the nemesis of the blank page.
Don't make art, just make something.
The Juggler
Submitted by Aldon Hynes on Tue, 05/21/2013 - 06:42The juggler stands in the big old empty circus tent surrounded by balls bouncing on the stage. Over the loudspeaker sounds the lyrics of Gordon Lightfoot's Carefree Highway:
Pickin' up the pieces of my sweet shattered dream
I wonder how the old folks are tonight…Turnin' back the pages to the times I love best…
Searchin' through the fragments of my dream-shattered sleep...Carefree highway, you seen better days
The mornin' after blues from my head down to my shoes
Carefree highway, let me slip away…
I look around the house. On my computer are too many unanswered emails and unwritten blog posts. Outside, the grass is high, higher than it should be.
There are signs around the house of the past month's other activities. On a shelf is a small replica of a lighthouse my mother had cherished. There are various special dishes from my mother's house being worked into the cupboards with our normal dishes.
I'm trying to integrate the good memories and mementos of my childhood into my adult life, now that my mother's house stands empty and owned by another family. At the same time, I am trying to process the painful memories; not forget them, but learn from them.
I eat my morning oatmeal. I'll include some frozen blueberries from Williamstown in my upcoming breakfasts. I'll finish this blog post, send a few emails, and head off to work where I'm also trying to pick back up too many balls to juggle at the same time.
