The next couple of days will be an immersion in what I do for a living, mostly, because I’ll be at the Idea Conference 2009. It’s all about social and experience design and you can bet that much of the conversation will centre on online communities and technologies.
I had an interesting listen on the way down to Toronto that was a good reminder of important community experiences way before “online” was an option. The current podcast from BBC History Magazine offered excerpts from audiobooks “The Home Front” and “The Second World War on the Air” featuring radio reports as well as personal interviews with people facing the beginning of the war. One man commented that people had no idea what the sirens meant at first, what was an air-raid warning versus an all-clear. Many were given backyard shelter kits to build, from “a heap of metal, a bag of bolts, and a spanner.”
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September’s arrival means the lazy summer is over, and the cool nights confirm it. I have had some welcome time for garden design and maintenance, visits with family and friends, a few short hikes, and a whole weekend of superb music, with only a few work projects to interrupt now and then. Soon the garden must be put to bed and I must shift into more disciplined work days, as my clients start to come up with things for me to do. September seems to have a freshness, an energy that is fueled by the shorter days and brisk evenings. Top of my mind is a getaway to the big city in a couple of weeks. My portable office and I will be camping out in the wilds of Etobicoke for a while, close enough to see lots of old friends and maybe be a tourist in downtown Toronto. Do you remember what life was like before the Internet? Even my generation and older may have difficulty looking back to when personal computer technology was new and amazing. Here are some videos that may help, what they call the “mother of all demos” from Stanford in 1968. Lead presenter Doug Englebart mentions, among other projects in progress, the ARPA network, the precursor of the Internet. My team at PMH declared me officially a five year survivor today. In cancer talk, that’s the major milestone to make, since statistically most recurrences diminish tremendously after that. We still watch and wait, but heck, another reason to celebrate! I went down to the catacombs to thank the people operating “my” radiation machine. The personnel have changed, but I know they like to see people who have made it. I’m off to the big city tomorrow to do a number of important things. First up is a routine visit to the wizard at Princess Margaret Hospital who blessed me with a cure almost five years ago. When checkup time comes around I always have to ask myself if I have earned it by smelling enough roses. No roses ready yet this year but the lilacs are sublime. On the next day I’ll visit a dear lady who unfortunately has not had the blessing I have. We’ll spend a pleasant hour or two chatting about this and that, and with any luck have a few giggles. With visits to sister, son and daughter, plus a few friends, I’ll be busy until Saturday, when I am speaking at the Editors’ Association of Canada national conference. Then it’s back home to smell the peonies. I’ve been a subscriber to The Globe and Mail on paper for way too many decades to admit, even continuing paper delivery after we moved up to Owen Sound. Today I finally gave up on the spotty delivery (sometimes late, sometimes never) and switched to the e-reader version. Maybe one day I’ll let go entirely, but for now, I can easily browse and navigate in an excellent interface, and even download the paper as a pdf. And yes, I can take the laptop out to the patio and read it there if I want, so no sacrifice has been made. Genealogy takes you back into mystery, confusion and doubt, with a dash of sadness if there are tragic deaths or misspent lives. My family probably includes the average number of madmen, pirates and fools, but I am proud to be descended from a most remarkable woman, Nana, my maternal great grandmother. In just over eight minutes, with a minimum of scientific jargon, get the whole history of the Internet in a clever black and white iconic narrative. Today was all about plants. I finished my research paper for the current horticulture course and, for a very limited time, I am willing to hold a conversation about the tamarack, also known as the Eastern larch. Moving on to indoor specimens, I overhauled everything growing in the sunroom, then set up containers for seeds that I will sow this week. That’s right, today’s Arctic temperatures notwithstanding, there will be homegrown lettuce within weeks. The irrepressible Hazel. Long may she reign. and skate. and boogie. |
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