Media induced mind clutter and a simple matrix
I am a proponent of staying current, keeping my mind sharp and being active in the smaller and larger communities I belong to. I am also a victim of information abundance. From a personal high level of interest in all things, I create and allow distractive environments to fester. I think I will feel better with less. The other day I worked out the problem somewhat. I was feeling drained by so many things. My trouble was that it was too easy to become consumed of all bad things happening in the world and though I have compassion for most of it, I have nothing to offer to change or improve the situation.
I don’t believe that it’s best for any individual to take the burden of the world’s problems to bed with him every night. When I say that I also must stress that we all must practice compassion, truly practice it daily. We can’t ignore suffering because “hey at least it’s not me this time!”
Even having compassion, can we still understand the complexities and hidden arguments of so many issues we’re exposed to. Sometimes the right choice may be to throw it out entirely. Let others work it out. There is no foul on ignoring one thing in order to focus on more meaningful choices. Here is my matrix for dealing with the burden of media, news and world issues.
You may find that effectively dealing with the over-abundance means cutting out everything that falls outside the marked category in the matrix above. If it affects you and you can do something about it (and you actually will) you will feel better overall, and experience less drain. Outside the marked realm, you are consuming interesting news stories that might cause pain or eat at your valuable time. Practice ignoring things outside the marked realm, yet remain compassionately detached.
Quick Example:
You read a story that a man dies by suicide, having jumped from a major city landmark near you. (This actually happened yesterday.) Unless you knew the person, it falls outside the realm of the matrix. It’s very sad and tragic, AND has the components of a newsworthy event in many people’s minds. Even geographically, you want to even say that it affected you. This story carries a burden with it. But instead of carrying the burden, you spend time interacting with one of your neighbors, creating a positive experience that you can take to bed with you. A lift instead of a burden. It’s an interesting life question isn’t it? Are we better off not knowing about tragedies? One can’t measure what the knowledge of a tragedy does to a person, when that person can’t do anything about it.
Cut off from many info sources, means extra time and life experience gained elsewhere. Be mindful over the next few days when you are reading or watching news. Where does each story fall within the matrix? Is there a sense that much of the “conflict” of the news is contrived, manipulated to appeal to your senses? What does this do to your well being? Is it time to detach from that source of news? Might you live better without it? My bet is that I probably will.
Things I’m doing:
Not watching TV news (Already do this)
Removing 60-80% of news sources from feedreader
Being mindful as I read the stories that filter down to me, fostering selectivity.
Meditate on what I can and can’t affect.
Reading books, to gain more complete knowledge to facilitate good decisions
Focus on benefits of experience with a person over reading news of past event I can’t control.
July 12, 2007 at 3:01 am | learning, media | 1 comment
Shooting at Ward Parkway: How the media unbalances crime
The wife and I came home this evening from our weekend with my parents in good old St. Louis. After getting settled in, unpacking and checking email, we find that Juri’s brother from Japan sent a concerned note about a Kansas City shooting. Immediately, I’m surprised that he would know about something like that. Shootings are common here. Shooting homicides are also too common. Probably 50 a year in the KC metro area. I’ll have to fact check that statistic though, it fluctuates. Why does he hear about this one though? Apparently, the echoes of another random act of violence in middle America was heard in Japan and China and likely other places. Thanks to the media, everyone in the world can be made to believe that random shootings are the world’s greatest threat.
Juri and I frequent this mall. We probably walk the same path as the shooter did once every two weeks. Starbucks, Target, and several shops in between. We might have been there today if it wasn’t for the trip to see my parents. But I’m not dwelling on that. I’ll be back at that mall in a matter of days. I’ll see Spiderman 3 or stock up on some cotton swabs. I don’t let my perception get too skewed by things like these. Why? Because reality is, there is more to be concerned about in my neighborhood in regards to smaller crime than there is with something random like this. When I went on a ride with the Kansas City Metro Patrol last year, the officers told me that they wouldn’t want to take their family to the plaza because it’s a dangerous place. Crime happens all the time there, in the garages around corners. They said “You know why you don’t hear about it right? Because the city wants you to keep shopping there, so the stories get buried or killed.”
That’s comforting!
Actually, our mall has done an excellent job over the past 24 months. We’ve lost our bookstore there, but we’ve gained several cosmetic upgrades, Old Navy, a big shoe store, several parking lot beatifications and the mall-goers have always been pretty pleasant. Security is also quick on the job there. While shopping on afternoon, I watched a man, having some sort of mental episode, shove a clerk at a kiosk onto the floor. It took about twenty seconds for two guards to show up and check on the guy and the clerk.
*Update*
I met with some public officials in Kurashiki, Japan this past week. We are preparing for a large exchange of close to 500 Japanese later in the summer. We talked about security and ensuring safety of the younger folks going on the trip. They immediately brought up the only scary Kansas City story they had heard about, the Ward Parkway shooting. They wanted to know how far the shopping mall was from the dormitories they are staying in. I assured them that they were safe as long as they didn’t watch the news.
April 30, 2007 at 12:49 am | guns, media, police, politics | 1 comment
Gutenberg rolls over in his grave
I just started a project for a coworker who got married last night. And before I tell you about it, there is a quote “we will always do more for others, than we will do for ourselves” which is so very, very true.
The project is: Me and Tracey Zoeller are combining the photos we took at a coworker Mike’s lovely little outdoor wedding and putting them into a printed hardcover book created through blurb.com. What a cool thing you can do and for under fifty bucks. Blurb gives you some decent software to put your book all together. We’re really excited to see what we can make. My friend Susan pointed me to an article on slate.com about some of the new online photo book creator services that were reviewed. I wanted to take a look at the review to make sure we were making the right choice.
My favorite quote from the article:
“All the Web sites promised that the books were easy to make. They lied. The simplest site required two hours of pointing and clicking. Some books took as long as four hours to create.”
Tragic isn’t it that the author had to endure such an ordeal? I mean really, how awful. You might compare it to the fate of Nelson Mandela, or Senator John McCain in Vietnam. Next you’ll be telling me that it’s going to take a full thirteen days to rebuild the World Trade center. She had to point AND even click for two hours to create her book. Reminds me of that really difficult day I had at my job recently. To complete a task, I literally had to get out of my own chair and walk down a flight of stairs. God I hope I don’t have to do anything like that ever again.
Being part of the publishing business, I know that books are rarely simple, but we must strive for efficiency and ease. There shouldn’t be any barriers to finishing your project quickly right? The other side is, I have no hope for future customers if people can no longer spend a few hours on a project, personal or not. Every video I’ve ever spent time with was a minimum of ten hours, personal or work. Even blogging this takes a couple minutes.
Perhaps the author would like to step back in time about fifteen years and see what it takes to put together a hardbacked, full color personalized photography book. About ten grand I’d say, with a minimum order of 500 copies. You have to draw it on layout paper, then take a cropper ruler and make the grease pen tick marks to every cropped image. And gasp, no world wide web. I’ve heard how the world is so advanced now that people from yesteryear couldn’t survive in this fast paced climate. I think it’s the other way around.
June 9, 2006 at 3:53 pm | computers, media, publishing, rants | No comment
Get some video tips
With all the effort put into making my friends wedding video, I thought it would be appropriate to offer some tips in case you have to do this kind of thing yourself.
May 9, 2006 at 12:49 am | media, training, writing | No comment
Charlie Sheen and 911
A couple people at work were talking about the actor Charlie Sheen, because this past week he did a radio interview where he basically states his stance on the 911 attacks. This stance being that there are too many unanswered questions. Buildings came down too fast perhaps.
One of the people who was in my training group said, (referring to Sheen) “I don’t even want to see that guy’s face ever again.”
It was funny that he was so disgusted that Sheen would imply that we weren’t given the whole truth about these incidents. I on the other hand am not trusting of the government. Nor should anyone be in my opinion. Thomas Jefferson wasn’t trusting of the government and that’s why our founding documents were written the way they were. Regarding 911 though, there are plenty of missing materials being witheld from the public. We have Pentagon security camera footage that hasn’t been fully released We have security cameras from a nearby Sheraton hotel that still hasn’t surfaced.
We also have WTC Building 7 which has an extremely suspicious air around it. One being the beneficiary of the insurance policy on WTC says on a PBS documentary referring to the collapse of building 7, said “We had such terrible loss of life and the chief said he was having trouble containing the fire that I made the decision to just ‘pull it.’” Early evening that building came down, after having suffered some fires from debris of the other towers.
I haven’t read the 911 Commission at this moment in time, though it’s on my list. I have heard that the topic of WTC7 was kind of glazed over. This might make sense to some because it didn’t get hit by airplanes, and was certainly a dwarfed by the other destruction. But the statement made by that gentleman who collected the insurance policy is a bit annoying to say the least. That building apparently contained government offices. These are offices that We the people own. A decision to pull, if referring to a demolition, is a huge crime, as it’s destroying government property. Our property, our records. Do you know what was housed in Building 7? What were those offices.
I’ve enjoyed watching a lot of the alternative movies on 911. It’s really fascinating to see points of view that weren’t really available at the time. It is an unarguable fact that there is a coverup of 911. We are missing these videos. We are missing cockpit record data. At that level, there is a cover-up. Uncover these materials, and then more citizens and families of victims can rest easier. Until they uncover it, these government agencies deserve all of the flack, all of the litigation, all of the cries of conspiracy, all of the suspicion they are getting.
Were these buildings demolished by airplanes alone? Built to withstand an airplane hitting them, and both having been built to withstand 2500 degree heat, these buildings came down 30 minutes apart, disintegrated, and at freefall speed. Darn the luck you might say right? These airplanes sure were the magic bullets. Now if some of the building engineers are lying and actually the building was not up to that standard, they are responsible for defects in the building.
As much as I love the adventure of conspiracy, I’m not going to remain unswayed here. I’m looking out for more evidence that proves the official story is correct. I want the official story to be correct for many reasons. Right now though, I think that those buildings came down too fast for logic, faster than melted metal and pancaking of floors should do. They came down so perfect, too impossibly perfect. Building 7 is shrouded in mystery. The pentagon is full of missing pieces.
If the government and the agencies were more transparent you wouldn’t have these questions, you wouldn’t have so many conspiracy theories. It’s the lack of transparency that is our downfall here in the United States. The War on Terror is not a reason to withold the things that we withold.
April 1, 2006 at 11:04 am | 911, conspiracy, media, politics, rants | No comment
The golden age of children’s television
I just have a few moments but I wanted to write a little bit about television. When I was growing up I feel like I experienced the golden age of children’s television. Back then, we had Sesame Street, Mister Rogers, Letter People Land, and a few more that I kind of remeber, one example is Electric Company which had some strange skits. Anyway I feel those shows were the product of the times before child pop psychology and the rise of political correctedness. My days we enjoyed folk songs, grainy animations, burlap and mop like puppets. It felt down to earth. In St. Louis, it’s channel 9 PBS that I grew up watching. These days you have shows made in 3D which appear to me to be overly cheesy. But then again I may be wrong.
I also remember whenever I’d go to my Aunt Judy’s house she would always have Bob Ross on television. Bob Ross was a painter with a soothing cool voice and a curly fro. The guy you’d want to have in your family. His show, The Joy of Painting, was one of the best learning demonstrations of painting. Some would argue that his treatments of landscapes that he always seemed to do weren’t really art. To that I’d respond with a bat to their foreheads.
His show was lighthearted, focused and original in the sense that I’m not sure if I’ve seen since any production house with that amount of coverage of a single topic, especially in the United States. In other countries you do see shows of that quality on language learning or piano practice. Hopefully the internet will change this in the next 3-7 years. Hopefully in the next 10 years we can call up a long video series of scratching on turntables or how to take care of reptiles.
Watching Bob Ross I always loved the sound of the palette knives scrapping against the palette and the paint canvas. All the sounds really meant something. It was all the more real. I don’t remember any sample sound bed or anything. Also just the creation of the landscape painting in front of you and watching the techniques.
Here’s to Bob Ross who passed away in 1995 of lymphoma. Thanks so much for the memories. Even though I never learned to paint, I definitely learned from you.
