Our very political week comes to a close with this new idea from fresh concept generator Spin Williams, who seems to have discovered the SHIFT LOCK key as a way of giving EMPHASIS to the written word.
Not all inspirations qualify as advances.
Friends,
I have seen the FUTURE of broadcast media!
Well, I haven’t actually SEEN it, but I think I know where it’s going, and the answer is EVERYWHERE all at once, and QUICKLY, but NOT to any ONE PLACE for long! The key bit of information in this vision is simple and undeniable. People LOVE watching dogs on the internet. Thus the success of PUPPY CAMS.
One of my minions brought this up at the meeting that NEVER ends – an article from the BBC that talks about new efforts to MOUNT television cameras on the heads of canines. This amazing technology will make WONDERS possible – things that were simply IMpossible just a few years ago. Of course the article talks about using Mutt Cams to LOCATE people who are TRAPPED in hard-to-reach places, and that’s a VERY GOOD use for this REVOLUTIONARY idea.
But having watched ALL the IOWA coverage over the past week, I’m STRUCK by how NEATLY the Mutt Cam idea lines up with the way our news media covers events – they do it in a PACK! YES! They are like DOGS CHASING a RABBIT named Romney! And another rabbit named Santorum! And another rabbit named Bachmann! And another! And another! And look! A SQUIRREL!
The restless, unfocused energy of canines is a PERFECT MATCH for the unforgiving demands of the 24 hour news cycle. That’s why I PREDICT that TV journalists AND their camera crews AND the editors and NEWS DIRECTORS who give them their marching orders will all be replaced by intrepid bands of camera be-decked TERRIERS! YES! And this will happen very soon because canines will work for inexpensive treats, and they will even accept GARBAGE as food! YES! And their LOYALTY is unquestioned!
Canine Correspondent Anderson Pooper
Here’s how it will work – the dogs will be electronically outfitted and sent into areas where news is SUSPECTED to have occurred. The humans will sit back, monitor and COMMENT on the video feeds as they come in. As long as the canines remain interested, we will follow the story. Their instincts are a perfect match for cable – if something STINKS, we follow it. If something is DEAD, we roll around on it. If something is NEW, or FAST, or FLASHY, it catches our eye and we CHASE it. And then there’s always GENITALS! Ours, someone else’s … it hardly matters. Fascinating! This is a change that is BOUND to HAPPEN!
What does it mean? If you are a market watcher, put your money into wireless shock-mounted camera companies, and invest in firms that make dog clothes and harnesses. If you know someone who has found a way to minimized the effect of hair clumps on electronic components, become a partner, immediately! If you own a website with the name “dog”, “mutt”, or “TV” in the title, DO NOT SELL.
And finally, if you are a journalist, start learning a new trade. HURRY, HURRY, HURRY! Good BOY!
Spin might be on to something here – Short Attention Span News covered by packs of Camera-wearing dogs. I’d watch. At least for a little while, until something else caught my eye.
Sometimes if I’m working on something really neat or interesting I can pay attention for a long time (like when I give my dog a fresh beef bone or a peanut butter-filled Kong) – other times…squirrel!
(“Squirrel” has become shorthand at work for conversations that bounce around a lot or for when we are having days where we aren’t able, for whatever reason, to stay on task for more than 3 minutes at a time.)
Morning all. I never thought about my attention span before… not sure how you measure this. But since I know I can focus and keep at a task until it’s done, I suppose my attention span is adequate to my life.
I’m not too sure about the dog news cams however. Even on my big dogs, the view we’ll all get will be mostly waist down!
Yes, lots of genital licking, I would assume. But have you considered the prospects for a strange point of view coverage of coraphagy? Sooner or later a dog wearing a camera is going to find a bitch in heat, and then we would get television of a sort never seen before. I’m chuffed.
I looked up “chuffed” in the dictionary and found this: “to move with a regular sharp puffing noise.” I’m guessing that is not the meaning that Steve is intending.
Good morning to all. I think my attention span is okay if you can get my attention and if my memory doesn’t fail me. This morning I was very distracted because I knew I had misplaced an important part from a kitchen mixer and couldn’t remember where I put it. Some people may think I am not paying attention, but actually I was deep in thought and they never suceeded in getting my attention. I do have a friend who can’t maintain a stream of thought and will change topics in rhe middle of a sentence. I don’t have that problem.
One of my best friends learned long ago that when I am deeply concentrated on something, I may not hear my own name. She and I used to do a lot of theater together, and she figured out if I was highly focused on some piece of work on the set and she needed to talk to me, she needed to call out my family nickname loudly, because I would not hear “Anna” no matter how much she called (unless, perhaps, she was standing right next to me – but then she’d only try it if I wasn’t wielding a big saw).
This always amazes me, as I can be very focussed, but seem to have impeccable peripheral hearing.
Perhaps it was because “overhearing” was such an essential part of getting important information when I was growing up. My parents never told us anything of consequence, so we had to glean what we could from conversations that did not include us.
One does not always hear the most pleasant of things that way, but one avoids many nasty surprises.
My daughters learned, early on, to call me by my first name. Apparently, hollering “mom” or any number of variations on that, got no response from me… although I think it may have been due to something other than me being “highly focused”.
You’ve likely encountered someone with ADHD – these folks make the most trying clients of all as they can’t track, absorb information, or even allow you to finish a thought. Drives me crazy!
Maintaining proper focus is always a challenge for me. I still haven’t matched all the haiku from yesterday, and now I’m wondering, is Ron Paul the squirrel?
Yes, I think the others are the rabbits and Ron Paul might be the squirrel. He is kind of squirrelly. They are all kind of on the wild side, no well mannered domesticated animals among them.
Okay, the squirrel could be MB, but I think of squirrels as being fairly smart even though they are kind of crazy. I would say MB is crazy enought to be a squirrel, but lacks the brain power of a squirrel. Ron Paul is no dummy, but he does come up with some crazy things.
Interesting Spin. If it were my three dogs, it would be a sideways picture of the corner of the garage where the old dog is always sleeping. Another shot of the dark of night while that dog barks at things only she can see and the third dog’s shot would be the floor as she’s carrying food from the dish to the bedroom doorway where she eats.
My mind often wanders. One of the things I really miss about milking cows was that milking only takes about 1/4 brainpower. The rest is routine and the mind can wander.
Some fieldwork is the same sort of thing; just round and round.
Yet I hate the days I can’t get focused on things; when I’m trying to work and the brain is just all over…
Couple months ago I was working on a show. I’m up in the booth after rehearsal programming the lightboard and eventually I look up and all the curtains onstage have been raised. Hmmm… there were weights on some of them and they should have “clunked” fairly loudly when the curtains were raised. I asked the stage manager, who was sitting with me, ‘when did the curtains go up?’ Couple minutes ago she says. ‘Where was I?’ I asked. Sitting right there she said. “I was surprised you didn’t comment on that” She says… never heard a thing. Guess I was in the zone.
If you strapped a camera on my dog’s head, you’d either see a lot of a corner of armchair where he sleeps during the day, or lots of images of kids, since children are his favorite people. You might get the occasional shot of my chin when he decides he is a lap dog. And many unique angle shots as Barney is quite prone to showing you his belly – he is a huge fan of a good belly rub.
I am pretty good at paying attention, but I give people the wrong message when I am focussed and thinking because I get a very serious look on my face and people think I am angry or upset. I usually think of my terriers as dogs with little attentional capacity, but they really are quite focussed and alert. The problem is that they notice everything. I don’t think they would tolerate the helmet, though.
I feel really bad when my very young therapy clients get worried that I am angry at them when I am only evaluating the significance of their play themes.
If you want every minutia of a story, strap a helmet cam on me (“pick me, pick me, pick me”… said in my best eager-to-please canine voice)… I will sniff it out! The husband says I should have gone into detective work. My curiosity is near insatiable and I have the attention span of a hungry cat stalking a small rodent. I hear it can get pretty annoying! 😉
I actually saw Dennis live many years ago… my favorite bit was his discussion of what how he imagined the feeling of giving birth. A man’s posterior and frozen watermelon featured prominently and I thought the man sitting in front of me was going to keel over from laughing.
Extremely funny TGITH. I will have to tell my doctor about that video when I get the colonoscopy that someone thinks I should have. I will tell him that if it doesn’t go well I will loudly warning any people who might waiting their turn to make their escape.
OT – tomorrow morning there is a Doctor Who discussion group at the Highland library at 10:30. It is also the day of the St. Agnes bread sale. I’m going to miss both, but I mention it for those who may be interested.
I will be working on a basement “remodel” tomorrow morning with my girlfriend and her husband. It is the teenager’s birthday present from the three of us.
New linoleum on the steps, new insulated ceiling panels, put bathroom door back on hinges, general cleaning up. This is the easy part. Hard part is that teenager wants furniture for basement as well (futon, stuffy chair, bean bag chairs, little tables… that kind of thing) and the budget for this isn’t nearly as large as she wants it to be!
i didn’t know they still made linoleum. ill bet it is the same designs i am remembering from 1960. getting the old stuf is the hard part. ceiling is boring task but makes a difference. have you thought about spray painting the existing ceiling tiles for a dramatic new effect. furnature. the goodwill store is full. go to 394 and goodwill (ne corner). they get great stuff from hoity toity houses for cheap.
dogs would be perfect to shoot those webcasts where the camera is moving while the photographer is walking. wiggle a little to the left little to the right. i have a feeling initial training would be a little expensive but after the obedience part was over and the commands coud be monitored over the collar command center to sit. scootch left scootch right the dogs would be as good as the average worker. one guy sitting in command central doing the camera choices on what is boring who has a hot topic who needs to aim a little more to the left. i would guess some dog on subscribers to the virtual world of doggie interest could provide enough capitol to get to the end of the month. they could be video stringers for the fox network and other newshungry outposts of world events. a special on obamas sox and show shine could be a regular feature, how about lady gagas undergarments? big potential here. i say go for it. woof woof.
my focus has never been in question it is absolutely non existent. i multi task and have conversations i do not have an inkling of. i am told i nod and maintain good eye contact and even reply sometimes and i don’t remember a bit of it. i tend to be swimming in thought and the interruptions of everyday life are a challenge to me and those who are trying to break through. i am a little like a dog in that if you wake me up give me a bowl of something i will no two ways about it get to the end of the day with my tail wagging and my attention to something or other all the way through. if it is what i should have been doing is a topic for others to bemoan i am busy with an important thought at the moment. hang on and i will come back to see what you wanted. my kids unfortunately learned long ago a plan b is in order. i am great when i am there for them but the effects of waiting for dad to get his act together have left many an hour of disenchanted children in the wake. i enjoy being on a mission but i really enjoy being out gleaning what there is to glean at this particular moment and if you predetermine what there is to pay attention to you tend to miss the cool thing happening right there you would never have figured on. dogs with cameras they could get that but who would be responsible for sifting through the film to see what made the highlights. i dont want to think about adding that to my list of recorded tunes radio shows pod casts, pictures from different events and now that i have a camera in my pocket 24/7 i have great pictures of sunrises, sunsets, fun walls of buildings interesting looking people and there is no reason to document them really they are just for me but when will i get around to sifting through it. never. will my kids do it when i die? no. i am amassing monumental quantities of data and info for its own sake. bigger hard drives now the cloud makes my collections limitless. what will the space visitors think when they open tims cloud hard drive. it will look like a dog video collection full of jumbled and disjointed factoids and informulets acquired through a lifetime of snipping interesting stuff and packing it away. woof woof
I am totally worn out just reading that, tim. Could I borrow a little of your energy?. I am more or less the direct opposite of what you described, but in my own slow way I do get some things done.
There is a new dog at our house. You would get a lot of pictures of the arms of our easy chairs and sofa if he had a cam on him. He just went right ahead and made himself at home on our furniture and we just let him do it hoping that the damage will not be too great. There would also be a lot of pictures of us at the other end of a tug toy he is holding in his mouth.
Outside you would see mainly pictures of the ground since he almost always has his head down sniffing at everything. Also there would be many shots where he is looking ahead as he pees on just about every tree and telephone pole. We might be able to train him to do some more interesting film making, but so far it is mostly him training us and not the other way around. .
It came from a shelter. It is one of those mixes, maybe a minature Schnauzer crossed with a minature Poddle. That’s what he looks like, but we don’t know for sure. Only about 16 pounds with a saggy silver and charcoal coat. Very gentle, not too loud, about 1 year old. He is working out well for us.
Greetings! I think I have a long attention span — unless I find something boring. I can read a good book for hours on end without even looking up or hearing anything. Like Anna, someone has to get in my face to get me away from a good book or something I’m totally focused on. But if I consider something boring — my mind packs up and leaves. For some reason, driving more than 30 minutes is just a total strain on my brain and attention span. After a while, I just zone out and have to force myself to pay attention, but that doesn’t work for very long.
Tim, what’s the time frame for Sunday board games — or is it a no-go? Our plans for Sunday are shifting at the moment, so I’m not sure.
I am MOST FOCUSED when doing “SPACE WIZARD” work – moving furniture, organizing, clearing stuff out. It’s ALSO when I’ll do the most PHYSICAL labor — I hardly even NOTICE that I’m huffing and puffing, I get so INVOLVED. Otherwise I am TOTALLY “interruptable”. (that doesn’t look right – interruptible?)
Love everyone’s take on what will happen with Spin’s C.C.A.P.
P.S. Dale – loved the haiku yesterday, but haven’t listened enough to identify most. How about a KEY?
When I’m interested in a project, I can be very focused. Not to the point where I won’t hear my name being called, but it can be difficult for me to stop doing whatever it is I’m working on or reading and go to, for example, work. Books or creative projects are especially this way. Lately I’ve been getting some ideas about reconfiguring the living areas of my house. To do what I’m dreaming of, I’ll have to tear everything apart and paint the walls. It could become a huge project and kind of an obsession. I keep visualizing how it might be and it’s hard to think about other things (like work). Before I’m done with the project, however, I will be completely sick of it. It will have become a huge bore and I won’t know why I did it.
If you put a camera on Pippin’s head, you’d get lots of video of his squeaky rubber chicken, his bones and my feet. Right now you’d get a shot of my patio door because he’s convinced there’s a coyote outside. We’ve had coyotes in our neighborhood in the last few days. My neighbor told me she saw one in my back yard around midnight a couple of nights ago. I saw tracks in the snow. Pippin has been quite suspicious of the backyard recently and growls fiercely when he’s out there. He’s nervous, does his business and comes back inside quickly. It’s kind of fun for me.
OT: I took website training for work in St. Paul today. Interesting stuff and I hope to put it to use.
Where did you do the training, and what did you learn? (Was it one of the Science Museum classes? I have had really good luck with those – at least for introductory and moderate level courses.)
My attention span has gone to the dogs. I like projects and would love to immerse myself in a number of projects, forgetting about everything else for a while, but years of constant interruptions has trained my mind to not focus for very long on anything. I guess my mind thinks it shouldn’t bother focusing because what’s the use? I’ll get interrupted and have to deal with some person or necessity of life.
I believe the only goal of my current place of employment is to reduce the attention span of every employee. Gone are the days where a person could close their door and concentrate for 30 minutes. Too bad that’s such a foreign concept!
Trail Baboon 
This is the ultimate example of the world going to the dogs!
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Remembering previous statements that goats are never OT I interrupt the Canine News Network with this video from The Washington Post http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/new-hampshires-goat-vote/2012/01/06/gIQAchzdeP_video.html These folks in NH take their pet goat to meet presidential candidates. It all started with Goats for Gore.
Where are the pup reporters when a real story is brewing?
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Fab find, Bath-Ann!
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Oopps…. BETH-Ann!
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Rise and Shine Baboons!
Really Shor–oh look at that shiny thing over there!.
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Sometimes if I’m working on something really neat or interesting I can pay attention for a long time (like when I give my dog a fresh beef bone or a peanut butter-filled Kong) – other times…squirrel!
(“Squirrel” has become shorthand at work for conversations that bounce around a lot or for when we are having days where we aren’t able, for whatever reason, to stay on task for more than 3 minutes at a time.)
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Morning all. I never thought about my attention span before… not sure how you measure this. But since I know I can focus and keep at a task until it’s done, I suppose my attention span is adequate to my life.
I’m not too sure about the dog news cams however. Even on my big dogs, the view we’ll all get will be mostly waist down!
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I envision a lot of close-up crotch shots.
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Yes, lots of genital licking, I would assume. But have you considered the prospects for a strange point of view coverage of coraphagy? Sooner or later a dog wearing a camera is going to find a bitch in heat, and then we would get television of a sort never seen before. I’m chuffed.
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Chuffed?
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I looked up “chuffed” in the dictionary and found this: “to move with a regular sharp puffing noise.” I’m guessing that is not the meaning that Steve is intending.
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My sources say it is a British term meaning delighted.
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Good morning to all. I think my attention span is okay if you can get my attention and if my memory doesn’t fail me. This morning I was very distracted because I knew I had misplaced an important part from a kitchen mixer and couldn’t remember where I put it. Some people may think I am not paying attention, but actually I was deep in thought and they never suceeded in getting my attention. I do have a friend who can’t maintain a stream of thought and will change topics in rhe middle of a sentence. I don’t have that problem.
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One of my best friends learned long ago that when I am deeply concentrated on something, I may not hear my own name. She and I used to do a lot of theater together, and she figured out if I was highly focused on some piece of work on the set and she needed to talk to me, she needed to call out my family nickname loudly, because I would not hear “Anna” no matter how much she called (unless, perhaps, she was standing right next to me – but then she’d only try it if I wasn’t wielding a big saw).
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This always amazes me, as I can be very focussed, but seem to have impeccable peripheral hearing.
Perhaps it was because “overhearing” was such an essential part of getting important information when I was growing up. My parents never told us anything of consequence, so we had to glean what we could from conversations that did not include us.
One does not always hear the most pleasant of things that way, but one avoids many nasty surprises.
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My daughters learned, early on, to call me by my first name. Apparently, hollering “mom” or any number of variations on that, got no response from me… although I think it may have been due to something other than me being “highly focused”.
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You’ve likely encountered someone with ADHD – these folks make the most trying clients of all as they can’t track, absorb information, or even allow you to finish a thought. Drives me crazy!
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Yes, I think my friend who can’t stay on a topic has ADHD or some kind of problem that is a disability.
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Maintaining proper focus is always a challenge for me. I still haven’t matched all the haiku from yesterday, and now I’m wondering, is Ron Paul the squirrel?
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Yes, I think the others are the rabbits and Ron Paul might be the squirrel. He is kind of squirrelly. They are all kind of on the wild side, no well mannered domesticated animals among them.
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So who is “squirrelly?” If by that you mean “nuts,” our own Michelle is surely number one again.
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Okay, the squirrel could be MB, but I think of squirrels as being fairly smart even though they are kind of crazy. I would say MB is crazy enought to be a squirrel, but lacks the brain power of a squirrel. Ron Paul is no dummy, but he does come up with some crazy things.
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Morning–
Interesting Spin. If it were my three dogs, it would be a sideways picture of the corner of the garage where the old dog is always sleeping. Another shot of the dark of night while that dog barks at things only she can see and the third dog’s shot would be the floor as she’s carrying food from the dish to the bedroom doorway where she eats.
My mind often wanders. One of the things I really miss about milking cows was that milking only takes about 1/4 brainpower. The rest is routine and the mind can wander.
Some fieldwork is the same sort of thing; just round and round.
Yet I hate the days I can’t get focused on things; when I’m trying to work and the brain is just all over…
Couple months ago I was working on a show. I’m up in the booth after rehearsal programming the lightboard and eventually I look up and all the curtains onstage have been raised. Hmmm… there were weights on some of them and they should have “clunked” fairly loudly when the curtains were raised. I asked the stage manager, who was sitting with me, ‘when did the curtains go up?’ Couple minutes ago she says. ‘Where was I?’ I asked. Sitting right there she said. “I was surprised you didn’t comment on that” She says… never heard a thing. Guess I was in the zone.
‘Squirrel!’ What squirrel?
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If you strapped a camera on my dog’s head, you’d either see a lot of a corner of armchair where he sleeps during the day, or lots of images of kids, since children are his favorite people. You might get the occasional shot of my chin when he decides he is a lap dog. And many unique angle shots as Barney is quite prone to showing you his belly – he is a huge fan of a good belly rub.
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I am pretty good at paying attention, but I give people the wrong message when I am focussed and thinking because I get a very serious look on my face and people think I am angry or upset. I usually think of my terriers as dogs with little attentional capacity, but they really are quite focussed and alert. The problem is that they notice everything. I don’t think they would tolerate the helmet, though.
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I can relate to the facial expression thing, Renee. I think I do the same thing. I don’t mean to put people off and I feel bad when it happens.
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I feel really bad when my very young therapy clients get worried that I am angry at them when I am only evaluating the significance of their play themes.
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If you want every minutia of a story, strap a helmet cam on me (“pick me, pick me, pick me”… said in my best eager-to-please canine voice)… I will sniff it out! The husband says I should have gone into detective work. My curiosity is near insatiable and I have the attention span of a hungry cat stalking a small rodent. I hear it can get pretty annoying! 😉
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My favorite stand-up comedian, known for his CAPS ON delivery.
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I actually saw Dennis live many years ago… my favorite bit was his discussion of what how he imagined the feeling of giving birth. A man’s posterior and frozen watermelon featured prominently and I thought the man sitting in front of me was going to keel over from laughing.
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Extremely funny TGITH. I will have to tell my doctor about that video when I get the colonoscopy that someone thinks I should have. I will tell him that if it doesn’t go well I will loudly warning any people who might waiting their turn to make their escape.
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As usual, my attention span a writer is not too good causing me to leave out a couple of words in the above comment.
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As a reader I was not focused enough to notice.
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OT – tomorrow morning there is a Doctor Who discussion group at the Highland library at 10:30. It is also the day of the St. Agnes bread sale. I’m going to miss both, but I mention it for those who may be interested.
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I will be working on a basement “remodel” tomorrow morning with my girlfriend and her husband. It is the teenager’s birthday present from the three of us.
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whats the project? insulating the walls and sheetrocking or new carpet? details are in order.
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… or maybe padded walls and lots of soundproofing?
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New linoleum on the steps, new insulated ceiling panels, put bathroom door back on hinges, general cleaning up. This is the easy part. Hard part is that teenager wants furniture for basement as well (futon, stuffy chair, bean bag chairs, little tables… that kind of thing) and the budget for this isn’t nearly as large as she wants it to be!
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i didn’t know they still made linoleum. ill bet it is the same designs i am remembering from 1960. getting the old stuf is the hard part. ceiling is boring task but makes a difference. have you thought about spray painting the existing ceiling tiles for a dramatic new effect. furnature. the goodwill store is full. go to 394 and goodwill (ne corner). they get great stuff from hoity toity houses for cheap.
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They still do…. the biggest question about the linoleum is if the leftover from our kitchen two years ago is enough for the steps… we’ll see.
Many of the insulated panels are missing or damaged, that’s why we’re going for new ones. Thanks for tips on Goodwill. We’ll have to check it out!
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Has anybody seen my linoleum floors
Petroleum jelly, and two world wars?
They got stuck in the revolving doors
All over this world.
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The 20th century is almost over, almost over, almost over…
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🙂
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dont know that prine tune , will have to look it up
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Steve Goodman’s Say It In Private album.
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dogs would be perfect to shoot those webcasts where the camera is moving while the photographer is walking. wiggle a little to the left little to the right. i have a feeling initial training would be a little expensive but after the obedience part was over and the commands coud be monitored over the collar command center to sit. scootch left scootch right the dogs would be as good as the average worker. one guy sitting in command central doing the camera choices on what is boring who has a hot topic who needs to aim a little more to the left. i would guess some dog on subscribers to the virtual world of doggie interest could provide enough capitol to get to the end of the month. they could be video stringers for the fox network and other newshungry outposts of world events. a special on obamas sox and show shine could be a regular feature, how about lady gagas undergarments? big potential here. i say go for it. woof woof.
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my focus has never been in question it is absolutely non existent. i multi task and have conversations i do not have an inkling of. i am told i nod and maintain good eye contact and even reply sometimes and i don’t remember a bit of it. i tend to be swimming in thought and the interruptions of everyday life are a challenge to me and those who are trying to break through. i am a little like a dog in that if you wake me up give me a bowl of something i will no two ways about it get to the end of the day with my tail wagging and my attention to something or other all the way through. if it is what i should have been doing is a topic for others to bemoan i am busy with an important thought at the moment. hang on and i will come back to see what you wanted. my kids unfortunately learned long ago a plan b is in order. i am great when i am there for them but the effects of waiting for dad to get his act together have left many an hour of disenchanted children in the wake. i enjoy being on a mission but i really enjoy being out gleaning what there is to glean at this particular moment and if you predetermine what there is to pay attention to you tend to miss the cool thing happening right there you would never have figured on. dogs with cameras they could get that but who would be responsible for sifting through the film to see what made the highlights. i dont want to think about adding that to my list of recorded tunes radio shows pod casts, pictures from different events and now that i have a camera in my pocket 24/7 i have great pictures of sunrises, sunsets, fun walls of buildings interesting looking people and there is no reason to document them really they are just for me but when will i get around to sifting through it. never. will my kids do it when i die? no. i am amassing monumental quantities of data and info for its own sake. bigger hard drives now the cloud makes my collections limitless. what will the space visitors think when they open tims cloud hard drive. it will look like a dog video collection full of jumbled and disjointed factoids and informulets acquired through a lifetime of snipping interesting stuff and packing it away. woof woof
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I am totally worn out just reading that, tim. Could I borrow a little of your energy?. I am more or less the direct opposite of what you described, but in my own slow way I do get some things done.
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I like “swimming in thought”…
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There is a new dog at our house. You would get a lot of pictures of the arms of our easy chairs and sofa if he had a cam on him. He just went right ahead and made himself at home on our furniture and we just let him do it hoping that the damage will not be too great. There would also be a lot of pictures of us at the other end of a tug toy he is holding in his mouth.
Outside you would see mainly pictures of the ground since he almost always has his head down sniffing at everything. Also there would be many shots where he is looking ahead as he pees on just about every tree and telephone pole. We might be able to train him to do some more interesting film making, but so far it is mostly him training us and not the other way around. .
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what kinda dog?
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It came from a shelter. It is one of those mixes, maybe a minature Schnauzer crossed with a minature Poddle. That’s what he looks like, but we don’t know for sure. Only about 16 pounds with a saggy silver and charcoal coat. Very gentle, not too loud, about 1 year old. He is working out well for us.
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That’s nice, Jim!
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good th hear a successful shelter story. glad its a good dog for you. thats so fun to have a good dog in your life
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Greetings! I think I have a long attention span — unless I find something boring. I can read a good book for hours on end without even looking up or hearing anything. Like Anna, someone has to get in my face to get me away from a good book or something I’m totally focused on. But if I consider something boring — my mind packs up and leaves. For some reason, driving more than 30 minutes is just a total strain on my brain and attention span. After a while, I just zone out and have to force myself to pay attention, but that doesn’t work for very long.
Tim, what’s the time frame for Sunday board games — or is it a no-go? Our plans for Sunday are shifting at the moment, so I’m not sure.
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games 3-7
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I am MOST FOCUSED when doing “SPACE WIZARD” work – moving furniture, organizing, clearing stuff out. It’s ALSO when I’ll do the most PHYSICAL labor — I hardly even NOTICE that I’m huffing and puffing, I get so INVOLVED. Otherwise I am TOTALLY “interruptable”. (that doesn’t look right – interruptible?)
Love everyone’s take on what will happen with Spin’s C.C.A.P.
P.S. Dale – loved the haiku yesterday, but haven’t listened enough to identify most. How about a KEY?
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When I’m interested in a project, I can be very focused. Not to the point where I won’t hear my name being called, but it can be difficult for me to stop doing whatever it is I’m working on or reading and go to, for example, work. Books or creative projects are especially this way. Lately I’ve been getting some ideas about reconfiguring the living areas of my house. To do what I’m dreaming of, I’ll have to tear everything apart and paint the walls. It could become a huge project and kind of an obsession. I keep visualizing how it might be and it’s hard to think about other things (like work). Before I’m done with the project, however, I will be completely sick of it. It will have become a huge bore and I won’t know why I did it.
If you put a camera on Pippin’s head, you’d get lots of video of his squeaky rubber chicken, his bones and my feet. Right now you’d get a shot of my patio door because he’s convinced there’s a coyote outside. We’ve had coyotes in our neighborhood in the last few days. My neighbor told me she saw one in my back yard around midnight a couple of nights ago. I saw tracks in the snow. Pippin has been quite suspicious of the backyard recently and growls fiercely when he’s out there. He’s nervous, does his business and comes back inside quickly. It’s kind of fun for me.
OT: I took website training for work in St. Paul today. Interesting stuff and I hope to put it to use.
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Where did you do the training, and what did you learn? (Was it one of the Science Museum classes? I have had really good luck with those – at least for introductory and moderate level courses.)
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My attention span has gone to the dogs. I like projects and would love to immerse myself in a number of projects, forgetting about everything else for a while, but years of constant interruptions has trained my mind to not focus for very long on anything. I guess my mind thinks it shouldn’t bother focusing because what’s the use? I’ll get interrupted and have to deal with some person or necessity of life.
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you need to focus hard enough to get on here when someone else is here. good to see you edith. hang in there we love you
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I believe the only goal of my current place of employment is to reduce the attention span of every employee. Gone are the days where a person could close their door and concentrate for 30 minutes. Too bad that’s such a foreign concept!
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