below is the summary paper for one of my graduate classes that just ended

INSDSG 655 – Multi-Media Project Spring ’08

Reflections on the course and Second Life


Let me begin by saying that I found this course to be quite enlightening. Being of a curious nature, well read, and fairly tech literate, it is quite rare for me to taken by surprise by a technology that has been out for years and known by millions. But this is exactly what happened after I decided to do my multi-media project focusing on Second Life.

I had heard of Second Life before through Wired magazine and other publications. Without actually experiencing it, I had written it off as a video game, a virtual sex medium, and/or an over-hyped business model (a combination which in retrospect should have been enough to at least pique my interest). After spending a semester exploring this online 3D world, I would have to agree to these assessments being at least partially true.

However, it doesn’t seem that long ago that I heard these same criticisms leveled at another emerging technology, the internet.

Whether or not SL becomes the next big thing, the main point of the presentation I made with my partner Hallie, was that it seems logical to assume that the masses will eventually prefer a 3D online environment over the current 2D one. And as the current reigning online 3D environment, SL offers a tantalizing glimpse into the near future.

Pursuing my masters degree in an all online program and working in a large corporate training environment, has put me in a position to appreciate the educational opportunities that a robust 3D environment offers. Exploring e-learning technologies is part of my job description, and my initial research leads me to believe those involved with e-learning activities may be the first ‘legitimate’ (as opposed to entertainment, porn, and SL specific accessories) businesses to have a truly viable, successful SL stronghold.

There has been much press about the failures of big corporations to attract visitors to inworld places like the Coke Pavillion. My guess is that the early users/adaptors of SL are still in the fun, exploration phase of this new medium and initial attempts of traditional business to attract them to their brands hold little attraction to this tech savvy bunch. In other words, the general public, with all its consumer-oriented buying power and volume of traffic, have not jumped into this new, computer and bandwidth-taxing medium yet.

Perhaps it will be similar to when artists move into lofts in decaying downtown areas and make a stronghold. Soon restaurants and retailers emerge to meet this new ‘hip’ market. Then these renewed neighborhoods become viable destinations and populations (and prices) rise. The schools and corporations establishing inworld training facilities may provide the foothold needed for the medium to take off.

Regardless of the outcome, I’ve found exploring the educational aspects of this exciting new medium during the course of the semester to be an interesting and valuable learning experience itself.

posted by bluematrix at 05/08/08 22:06 | link | comments (1)

anyone who’s read this blog for any length of time knows that i spend a lot of time writing about personal development concepts that i’ve come across. there are very things we can do in our spare time that pay off as well as working on improving ourselves – how we do things and how we look at the world. for many years i was content to just absorb other peoples creativity in the form of fictional books and movies. often these things would bring me some pleasure (pleasure is good) and sometimes i would even learn things.

but eventually it got to a point where it wasn’t doing it for me anymore. i was spending too much time experiencing life vicariously thru other peoples creativity secondhand and not enough of the harder, but more satisfying, firsthand experiences.

one of the books that had a great influence on me getting off my butt was steven covey’s The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. habit 7 in that book was one of the more important ones and he called “Sharpen the Saw.” covey uses the common analogy of a woodcutter who is sawing for several days straight and is becoming less and less productive. the process of cutting dulls the blade and the solution is to periodically sharpen the saw.

steve pavlina who’s blog is a great treasure of developmental reading had this to say about habit #7:
I’ve found that in practice most people fail to understand what sharpening the saw really means. If you’re overworking yourself and your productivity begins to fall off, common wisdom says to take a break, maybe even go on vacation. However, that isn’t sharpening the saw — that’s putting the saw down. When you put down a dull blade for a while, the blade will still be dull when you pick it up again.

Sharpening the saw is actually an activity, just as the analogy suggests. Think about what it would mean to sharpen the saw of your life. Here are some saw-sharpening ideas:
1. Exercise
2. Improve your diet
3. Educate yourself (read, listen to audio programs, attend a seminar)
4. Learn a new skill
5. Join a club
6. Meditate
7. Write in your journal
8. Have a deep conversation with someone
9. Set some new goals or review/update your old goals
10. Organize your home or office
11. Go out on a date
12. Clear out a bunch of little tasks that you’ve been putting off
13. Read this blog
Now the woodcutter can’t just alternate between cutting wood and sharpening the saw indefinitely. Downtime is needed too, but it isn’t the same as sharpening the saw. The woodcutter can become even more productive by sharpening the blade, studying new woodcutting techniques, working out to become stronger, and learning from other woodcutters.

Forgetting to intentionally sharpen the saw can lead to a feeling of burnout. If you merely alternate between productive work and downtime, your production capacity will drop off. You’re still working hard, but you don’t feel as productive as you think you should be. When you sharpen yourself regularly, you’ll find that you can flow along at a steady pace week after week without getting burnt out.

Whenever I feel burnt out or overwhelmed, taking a day or two off helps a little, but not very much. What yields a much greater benefit for me is attending a weekend seminar, reading an inspiring book, or having an interesting conversation. It’s common to see people return from a conference with a notable spike in motivation that lasts for weeks. But this isn’t really a break or a vacation — going to a conference is an activity, but it’s the kind that often increases energy and motivation.

How are your various blades doing? Your skills, your knowledge, your mind, your physical body, your relationships, your motivation, your commitment, your capacity for enjoyment, your emotions — are all of them still sharp? If not, which ones are dull, and what can you do to sharpen them?

posted by bluematrix at 04/29/08 21:37 | link | comments (2)

interesting convergence just now. just finished watching the movie 'august rush'. and yep, like as happens during a very touching movie or an extraordinarily appropriate song i teared up a bit. i know, i know 'girly man'. so be it. cool shit makes me emotional and reaffirms that i'm not totally dispassionate about life and the beauty contained therein. some critics called a cliche and and i can see where they're coming from, but it still worked its magic on me due to how many of the themes, ahem, resonated with me.

it pretty much had me from 'hello'. the incredible power of music, and how it takes over your soul sometimes - brought back memories of being mysteriously obsessed with writing and producing mary's dream, my rock opera, a few years ago. and the reconnection between a son and his parents is often a good hook for me (eg field of dreams). and the little things like the book on my beside table is 'lila' (sequel to zen motorcycle maintenance) also the mother's name in the movie, the irish father (i'll be visiting the emerald isle home of my ancestors in october), who's also a guitar player, and the guitar music the kid prodigy played in the movie was by my hero michael hedges (see his youtube link posted here a few weeks ago), all wrapped up in great cinemtography and quality acting. pretty choice movie. and coming at a time where i am in a pretty damn good place in my life right now too didn't hurt magic factor either. kinda cool.

posted by bluematrix at 04/20/08 22:24 | link | comments (2)

god is a comedian playing to an audience afraid to a laugh.

i try to laugh (or at least deeply smile) at things everyday. sometimes its because something is funny and sometimes its just a better choice when one crappy thing after another piles up and then one more dumb thing happens and its either get pissed and yell, or laugh at the absurdity of life. laughing in this situation actually gives you power over it. there are so many things in life that we have no control over and can't change. as long as we have a sense of humor, however, we can do something - such as minimize the hold that upsets have over us. laughter has the power to turn any situation around.

there is a Japanese proverb, “Laughter brings us happiness”. i find much truth in that. laughter also brings us health. studies have shown that laughing lowers blood pressure, reduces stress hormones, increases muscle flexion, and boosts immune function by raising levels of infection-fighting T-cells, disease-fighting proteins called Gamma-interferon and B-cells, which produce disease-destroying antibodies. laughter also triggers the release of endorphins, the body's natural painkillers, and produces a general sense of well-being.

laughter helps establish communication and rapport, and knows no cultural boundaries. it can help break the ice when you're in a group because its one form of communication which everyone can relate to.

humor increases learning and retention. since laughing stimulates both sides of the brain - people get the message quicker and remember it longer.

it can also be used as a "diagnostic tool." listen carefully to a person's humor- when a person jokes around, he or she may be indirectly telling us about the things that are bothering him or her.

but what is laughter? what is the survival value of the involuntary, simultaneous contraction of fifteen facial muscles associated with certain noises which are often uncontrollable? laughter is a reflex, but unique in that it serves no apparent biological purpose; one might call it a luxury reflex. the paradox can be put in a different way. it strikes us as a reasonable arrangement that a sharp light shone into the eye makes the pupil contract. but that a complicated mental activity like the reading the comics should cause a specific motor response on the reflex level is a lopsided phenomenon which has puzzled philosophers since antiquity.

laughter is involuntary noisemaking. and laughter is noisy, not because it releases pent-up psychic energy, but so that others may hear it; it is a form of communication. the brain broadcasts an honest, unfakable, expensive advertisement of a mental state. As with displays of anger, shame, and fear, the brain is going to some effort to convince an audience that an internal state is heart-felt rather than a sham.

primates, and children in all societies, engage in rough-and-tumble play as practice for fighting. Play fighting poses a dilemma for the fighters: the scuffling should be realistic enough to serve as a useful rehearsal for offense and defense, but each party wants the other to know the attack is a sham so the fight doesn't escalate and do real damage. laughter has evolved as a signal that the aggression is, as we say, 'all in fun'.

lol.

posted by bluematrix at 04/08/08 21:26 | link | comments (8)

a song that keeps popping up when I make playlists is an old stevie wonder tune, ‘don’t you worry ‘bout a thing’. like many good self help concepts, a good idea, but often hard to put into practice. even though we know worrying doesn’t help matters, we all do it. some even worry about worrying to much – how’s that for a negative feedback loop?

there's an old japanese saying – the mind is the source of all disease. your mind worrying about stuff causes stress. and stress leads to ulcers, high blood pressure, allergies, heart troubles, gastrointestinal diseases, headaches and other problems. some cancer authorities even claim that stress increases one’s susceptibility to cancer. and when you’re sick, you worry about getting sicker and we get another negative feedback loop.

Dr. Paul E. Adolph says “Anxiety and worry represent forms of fear which project themselves into the future and often concern themselves with imaginary situations which never come to pass.  Indeed, it often happens when the future situation arrives, it is devoid of all the contemplated elements which are anticipated”. when was the last time something you worried about actually came to be and hurt you physically?

worrying breaks down into two categories, the first one being problems that you really need to think about. for instance you hear a weird noise coming from your car engine. if you ignore it, chances are it will get worse. so the best course is to think calmly and rationally about what the next best step should be…perhaps to make an appointment to get your car in. worrying won’t help your car run better - but considering your options or getting a bit more information probably will.

the second kind of worry is a problem that no amount of thinking will solve. worrying about the past is a good example here, you know you can’t change what happened. you might think “I would have been happier now if I hadn’t done this' but it just might be that “I would have been more miserable now if I had done that”.

completely contrary to when you're feeling stress, when you're relaxed, the autonomic nervous system, endocrine system, immunological system, etc. work better. this means less disease and being in better physical condition. now we have a positive feedback loop.

problems exist outside of you, and almost never harm you. but constant worrying has a decent chance of putting you in a hospital.

posted by bluematrix at 03/31/08 20:04 | link | comments (1)

a bit late again blogging last week...i ended up taking a last minute spring break vacation to the beach for a week before i start my new job tomorrow. very relaxing.

while i was there i had a chance to dig into a new book, a followup to 'zen and motorcycle maintenance' by r. pirsig, called 'lila'. instead of a using a motorcycle journey to ponder on deep philosophical issues he uses a sailboat (an even better topic for me than motorcycles). and he talks about the importance of the american indian on shaping our country's values (the earth-friendly lifestyle of the indian yet another topic of great interest to me).

of all the contributions america has made to the world, the idea of freedom was the most important and the author traces it directly to the indian. it was fought for in the american revolution and confirmed in the civil war and is still the most powerful ideal holding this country together.

jefferson called this idea of all men being equal 'self evident', but it is not at all self evident...in fact scientific and historical evidence points to just the opposite. there is no nation in europe that doesn't trace its history to a time when it was very self evident that men are definitely created 'unequal'. rousseau, who is sometimes given credit for the 'created equal' idea, definitely did not get the idea from looking at the history of europe, asia, or africa filled with kings, emperors and pharos along with serfs, slaves and lower castes. he got it from the impact of the new world upon the europeans settling here and from contemplating one particular kind of individual in that new world - the 'noble savage'.

early europeans here only transmitted the idea of equality from the american indian, a race to whom this idea of freedom was not just an interesting doctrine, but had it built into their bones. there was no build up and hoarding of material wealth and resources that gives one man power over another - the indian did not believe anyone can 'own' land. they instead chose to live in harmony with it just like all of the other creatures on the earth. their possessions were few and simple and mostly practical. there is much to learn from this.

every day i get an email - elder's meditation of the day. here is one from March 5...
"I have always searched for my place and my people." --Wendy Rose, HOPI/MIWOK

For every human being to feel connected, we must have the feeling of belonging. That is one of the values and benefits of a culture: it creates the feeling of belonging. If for some reason, while you were growing up, you did not develop the feeling of belonging, a search will be triggered and a restlessness will be present in your heart. You will have a hole inside you, something missing, until you find your place and your people. Remember, we can get this feeling of belonging when we realize we belong to the Great Spirit and that He really loves us a lot.

posted by bluematrix at 03/23/08 08:25 | link | comments (4)

'balance'. i think about it often. balance of work and play, of denying now versus and planning for the future versus living for the moment. of how hard it is to achieve balance, and how fleeting it is once its found.

in order to balance something you have to find the center of the things you want to balance. picture a playground see-saw - go too far one way or the other and you become off balance and your butt plops to the ground.

so being centered is good thing. physically, i realize this when i do tai chi - most of the movements flow from the center of the torso (as they do in pilates). many focus specifically on the 'dan tien' a point just below the navel which is the center of gravity for our bodies and a metaphysical hotspot. this center point is also one of the 'chakras' used in asian meditation techniques. hawaiians moved it slightly higher (the navel itself) and called this center place the 'piko' and literally and figuratively it represents our connection to the source of life.

but what about mentally and spiritual centeredness? tricky. i suppose one could use adjectives to describe the feeling if not the actual state of being centered. peaceful, connected, confident, loved. if you can find your center, you become balanced and then you can feel these things.

great, but how do you get there? meditation is historically a common way, but hard for most people today to cultivate.

i find it pretty easy to feel centered in certain special places in nature that inspire me and make me feel connected to the world - in forests (like the sequoias in california), near water (like na pali coast in hawaii), in canyons (like the grand canyon), and deserts (like death valley), and mountains (like estes park in colorado). but being in st. louis i don't have mountains and deserts, and i can't get to these places very often.

but i seem to have some luck when i combine a physical attempt to be centered (like tai chi or simple breathing exercises) with going to a place in nature nearby (like the river or the woods). it definitely does not just come to me while i'm sitting at my desk...i have to work at it. but it's something worth working on.

"Most of us think ourselves as standing wearily and helplessly at the center of a circle bristling with tasks, burdens, problems, annoyance, and responsibilities which are rushing in upon us. At every moment we have a dozen different things to do, a dozen problems to solve, a dozen strains to endure. We see ourselves as overdriven, overburdened, overtired. This is a common mental picture and it is totally false. No one of us, however crowded his life, has such an existence. What is the true picture of your life? Imagine that there is an hour glass on your desk. Connecting the bowl at the top with the bowl at the bottom is a tube so thin that only one grain of sand can pass through it at a time. That is the true picture of your life, even on a super busy day, The crowded hours come to you always one moment at a time. That is the only way they can come. The day may bring many tasks, many problems, strains, but invariably they come in single file. You want to gain emotional poise? Remember the hourglass, the grains of sand dropping one by one." - James Gordon Gilkey

posted by bluematrix at 03/09/08 01:12 | link | comments (1)

they say music soothes the savage beast. i know it has soothed me many time when hope seemed far away. i haven't been playing too much lately (or blogging for that matter) and i hope to change that soon. on the other hand, sometimes you just have to put it down for awhile and not force it, and hope the muse will return when she's ready.

in the meantime, i recently came across some youtube videos of my favorite guitar player of all time, an acoustic thrash master called michael hedges. i had the extreme pleasure of seeing him play several times and even had a beer with him at blueberry hill one time before he died in a tragic car accident. his passing effected me almost as a family member. hard to believe its been 10 years.

his music, beyond being technically challenging and wonderful to listen to, just inspires me. one man, one guitar - no layering, no fixing up in the studio, just a musician going off the hook with his art.

in looking for my muse i am reminded of something he once said, “…the path to yourself may be through others.”

so if you're in the mood to watch and listen to a different path for a bit i offer up some tidbits here, enjoy...

this is him playing a harp/guitar instrument
harp


this is a version of the dylan/hendrix song all along the watchtower which was the first thing i ever heard from michael late one night watching austin city limits on public television.
watchtower


and lastly, since you will never have the opportunity to see michael play live again, i leave you with a still living artist who definitely has some michael influence that you should check out if you get the chance. his name is ben lacey and my friend tim burke's buddy shot this video of him playing an old led zeppelin song in nashville.
benlacey

posted by bluematrix at 02/29/08 21:05 | link | comments (5)

sorry i'm late. typically i do a once a week blog post, usually sunday night. i'm late because....drum roll please...i've accepted a full time position and have been bizzy getting things together. yep for the first time in a decade i will have a real job, with a real office and a real boss and most importantly, a real paycheck every two weeks.

i've enjoyed my time as a contractor/freelancer/small business owner - the freedom, at times great money, the sense of controlling ones destiny. but working for myself, usually out of my home office, i have missed the daily interaction with my fellow humans, the benefits both monetary and non-monetary (like company paid training) that come with large corporations, and last but not least, knowing how much you're going to make every week... makes budgeting a heckuva lot easier.

i have a feeling i will be one day revisit working for myself again. there are two books (one already started) that need to come out of me someday. and i keep envisioning myself being a motivational speaker sometime. oh and there is the movie i promised myself i would make someday. but for a few years at least i'm jumping back into the corporate scene and putting aside the professional creative gig.

the position i've accepted is one that happily corresponds directly with the masters in instructional design (elearning emphasis) i will attain this later this year. my official title is 'senior consultant' in the training department for a large midwest hospital system employing 30,000 people and over 4000 doctors. it should be fun and challenging and well, stable for a change. bring it on.

posted by bluematrix at 02/20/08 21:23 | link | comments (3)

some heavy, but enlightening thoughts on death from the epilogue of 'zen & motorcycle maintenance' that remind me of what i struggled with after my sister jacquie died two (hard to believe its been that long) years ago. Chris, the authors son who took the motorcycle trip with him, was murdered a few years after the book was published and below is an excerpt of the author pondering his sons death.

'Where did Chris go? Did he go up the stack at the crematorium? Was he in the little box of bones they handed back? Was he strumming a harp of gold on some overhead cloud? None of the answers made any sense.

It had to be asked: What was it I was so attached to? Is it just something in the imagination? Do real things just disappear like that? If they do, then the conservation laws of physics are in trouble.

But if we stay with the laws of physics, then the Chris that disappeared was unreal. Round and round and round. The loops eventually stopped at the realization that before it could be asked "Where did he go?" it must be asked "What is the 'he' that is gone?" There is an old cultural habit of thinking of people as primarily something material, as flesh and blood. As long as this idea held, there was no solution. The oxides of Chris's flesh and blood did, of course, go up the stack at the crematorium. But they weren't Chris.

What had to be seen was that the Chris I missed so badly was not an object but a pattern, and that although the pattern included the flesh and blood of Chris, that was not all there was to it. The pattern was larger than Chris and myself, and related us in ways that neither of us understood completely and neither of us was in complete control of.

Now Chris's body, which was a part of that larger pattern, was gone. But the larger pattern remained. A huge hole had been tom out of the center of it, and that was what caused all the heartache. The pattern was looking for something to attach to and couldn't find anything. That's probably why grieving people feel such attachment to cemetery headstones and any material property or representation of the deceased. The pattern is trying to hang on to its own existence by finding some new material thing to center itself upon.

Some time later it became clearer that these thoughts were something very close to statements found in many "primitive" cultures. If you take that part of the pattern that is not the flesh and bones of Chris and call it the "spirit" of Chris or the "ghost" of Chris, then you can say without further translation that the spirit or ghost of Chris is looking for a new body to enter. When we hear accounts of "primitives" talking this way, we dismiss them as superstition because we interpret ghost or spirit as some sort of material ectoplasm, when in fact they may not mean any such thing at all.'

posted by bluematrix at 02/10/08 15:24 | link | comments (1)