heathervescent

Bushwacking in the City

Deviating from the usual push up the hill, we splashed through the stream into the grove of live oaks. The cool breeze rustled the leaves. The stream trickled over rocks and leaves. We followed the faint trail through the high grass into another grove. Gnarled bark, twisted branches, thickets of thistles, their prickly flowers closed tight, showing just a mohawk of purple. 

Hanging from a branch was a board threaded with rope. The packed earth below gave way to the stream. I remembered rope swings of the past, the feeling the same at any age. Back-kicking to gain more speed and using trapeze leg swinging techniques to gain more lift. 

Leaving the shady grove, we twisted through the chaparral filled with all kind of prickly plants. Rounding a bend, we came upon a hidden valley. It was filled with the buzzing of bees pollinating the wild sage covering the hillsides. I love breathing in the hot sweet smell of the chaparral. Resting in silence on a rock outcropping, I took in the moments. A buzzing and chirp alerted me to the hummingbird quietly sitting on a bush branch nearby. Gnats and bugs were buzzing everywhere. Pup and I sat back to back taking in the view. Silently sitting, moving only to breath. (Have you felt the descent of non-movement, pure silence taking over your body?) Observing, fully connected. 

A perfect (jaunty) view of the Hollywood sign, just beyond the hillside of yellow daisies. The wildness unbroken by the helicopter and private jets taking off from Burbank over the hill. I am amused, as I always am in these moments, at the pocket of wildness in the middle of the city.

Returning to the path for a mere moment, we splash in the stream, paws wet running along the edge, jumping from rock to rock. I remember the streams in my Iowa wilderness as a teenager. The fields I'd find past the treeline. Our cat, Roadha June, sleek and black who would come on these hikes to caves and cemeteries hidden on hillsides.

Those paths are deep in the past. Today I have visited a hot hillside, filled with buzzing bees, blooming sage, a resting hummingbird and groves of Live Oak. We trot back to the car and dry off our paws. Five minutes later, I'm in the thick of things on Sunset Blvd. 

Los Angeles has many costumes in her wardrobe, and this is why I love her.

The Future of Collaboration

Collaborating can be one of the best things to experience and recently I have had some new mindmelding group borg collaborative experiences - mostly due to technology.

Google Docs: The collective editing experience

My colleague and I were editing/creating the same google doc. We were exploring/creating/clarifying a project/article we decided to work on. We're on different sides of the country, three time zones apart and yet when were working on the document at the same time, I felt closer, able to collaborate more effectively than had we been in person.  We were interacting fully online - with a text chat/discussion and the document editing and creating. Our places in the document were identified by different colored cursors, but there was not change tracking mechanism. We also did not stick to certain sections of the document. We skipped all around, I working on one section for a bit, then him jumping in (reading) commenting, editing/wordsmithing. The end product was one of the most collaborative documents I have co-created.  And I might mention, this is with a colleague I have never met face to face.

 

Barcamp: Ad-hoc Do-ocracy

Myself and a team of ~8 co-organizers have been bringing back this favorite technology un-conference to Los Angeles since late 2010.  What has been interesting to watch is the changing group of active participants.  Although I feel there is one person driving the team (with a light hand) the experience I have had is one of "picking up the balls." Meaning, whatever needs to get done, ends up getting done by whomever can do it. Everyone has contributed their skills and expertise when it was needed. This has been a great experience in ad-hoc do-ocracy.

 

FutrChat: The fastest hour on Twitter

I had not participated in many Twitter Chats before participating in #futrchat. Futrchat is was started by Cindy FrewenWuellner and Jennifer Jarratt for the Association of Professional Futurists (APF), of which I am a (student) member. Each month a new topic around the Future of ____ is chosen. Some framing information is shared before the chat to set the stage. Then the firehose is turned on at a specific pre-scheduled time. In 3-5 minutes, my twitter stream goes from it's usual ticking of random information to lighting up across the globe. Futrchat participants tune in from Australia, UK and all across the US.

Then the hosts begin to pose the questions. (Each chat has 3-6 questions we explore in the hour.) And then the 50 or so conversation participants begin to answer them. In the answering, people respond to each other, chasing down an idea or querying for additional information. And all this is done within 140 characters.  If this was a verbal conversation, it would be cacophony, everyone would be "speaking" at once. And online, in text, everyone is speaking at once. But because text has the ability to be linear and allow multiple responses in the same timespace, no one "interrupts," no one has to be silent to allow others their turn. Your turn is always, if you choose to take it.

Of course, one is not always "talking." There is the time needed to read (listen) to other's answers. To see who is responding to you. To think about what your response is to what you are reading (hearing). (And yes, I hear these people's voices in my head as I read their tweets.)

Although, it is generally just me, in my home office with my favorite furry companion during these #futrchats, I feel more stimulated than going to a conference. I'm in the comfort of my home, with high speed connection, able to quickly type, with my dual monitors to have various screens open to slice and dice and display the chatting data in various ways so I can follow and track the "radiowaves." This is ebonding. The intense human interaction that causes you to learn, understand and share more of yourself and others. For that hour, I am in an auditorium, that is can be filled with the voices of many people talking about things I find interesting. 

And then the hour passes, and the energy and space dissolves, the twitter stream returns back to it's usual bubbling. The channel has closed, for the moment, but it always accessible.

A quick note about participating in these chats. There is no specific location we go to to have these conversations. It's not like we go to a specific chat room, or IRC or private label login. Yes, we are all on twitter, but besides that, the only thing you need to do to participate is to use the hashtag: #futrchat. It is like tuning into a radio station, but instead of only receiving, you can also send.  Additionally, the technology of twitter, allows for both the sending and receiving of the information being sent on the wave (the hashtag #futrchat). 

 

In Closing

Technology is facilitating a way for the individual, completely and fully as an individual - I, to participate in a collective activity - a community - WE - if only for moments. These collaborations facilitated by technology are profound shifts in how individuals and communities form each other and participate with/in them.

Religion and the Road

My guilty pleasure on roadtrips (besides high speeds) is listening to religious talk radio. Upon writing that sentence, maybe the two are linked...

Don't make the mistake that I'm a true believer. I believe in eating at others tables. (Did you catch the esoteric reference?) There's something about being in the countryside, hearing a preacher preaching. I believe it's important to understand others perspectives. To jump into their mindset groove; regardless of my own judgements. More often, the challenge is how long can I stand listening to the station before twisting the dial to find a classic rock station with CCR or Mick Jagger.

Racking up over 3000 miles in the last month I did a LOT of listening to religious talk radio. So much so, I started recognizing the preachers names. It gave me new insights - and disgusts. 

Have you ever spent time in the wilderness? Out and about. All alone. In a car/truck 30 miles off pavement where you could die if you were stupid? Or on a roadtrip through empty landscape. Have you lived in rural america, where the nearest town is miles miles miles away. And there were no cell phones? or Internet? Have you been lost in the woods?

Out there, in the wilderness, you need some comfort. You need to know you're not alone. You want to know there's someone watching over you. You need to know there is a reason to go on. Otherwise, one might go crazy. The self-responsibility necessary to live without God is huge. It's utterly terrifying. Much easier, more comforting to live with God. And why not? It's a compassionate perspective. It makes this hard life on earth a little softer. It's a good reason to believe in God. 

But the disgust is equally there. I mean, WTF is up with literal interpretation? I caught one snippet, where the preacher's point was that anyone could go out and talk to god. His example was taking the bible with him on a walk at night and reading the scripture by the light of the streetlights. He suggested everyone should do this. As if reading the bible is the only way to "talk" to "god." I was saddened and amazed at the missed point. Disinformation.

Driving through the high desert, listening to religious talk radio, I equally gave up on humanity and held compassion for our situation. Life is hard, and who can blame it if we sometimes we need a little comfort?

My Favorite Roadtrip Moment

There is one single series of moments that is always my favorite in every roadtrip.

Most of time I'm a solo individual on the highway. I admit, I tend to drive towards the faster end of the spectrum. My recent roadtrip to Texas cajoled me into a high speed comfort zone. Here's the vision: me in my swedish "born from jets" black turbo convertible winking at the pickups. If one passed me, I'd peer up to see what was on the dash. I had to give up the Valentine One when the boyf got the speedier vehicle, but I can recognize the device. When I'd see one in a truck speeding by, I'd increase my speed and fall into their groove. There's a sense of camaraderie driving with a pack at [redacted] speed. The creation of an ad hoc community formed by the shared value of speed. Individuals identified only by make, model and color. A vehicular tango.

I am always filled with sadness and spent adrenaline when our paths inevitably part.

I had a particularly wonderful engagement with a pickup in Colorado several years ago. We zipped through the rockies, threading the needle with the slower cars. I was hours ahead of schedule. Just after we crossed into Utah, he headed south while I continued west. As our engagement ended, we rolled down our windows and waved as we drove further apart. Although I never knew his name and we never spoke a word, hell - I never saw what he looked like; we connected on another level. Our tires tread the same hot pavement. The memory of those moments are as fresh as yesterday.

Goodbye stranger, it's been nice. Thanks for joining me, for miles in paradise.

Thanks to Jordan for this lovely picture.