https://chumly.com/n/254496e
mercredi 30 avril 2014
mardi 29 avril 2014
I remind you that
I remind you that... I remind you that I have practised sound design for the better part of 20 years. I remind you that I basically invented contemporary soundscape ecology, acoustic ecology, ecoacoustics, bioacoustics, etc.
I remind you that being the Man with the Recorder is a lot of work. I remind you that as I hold the digital recorder in my hand, I mustn't move, I mustn't even breath, least I myself show up in my recordings.
I remind you that I have worked very hard to achieve what I have achieved and that I will not accept you doubting the legitimacy of what I do. Lastly, I will remind you that I am my own final judge, and not you. Please keep your advice to yourself. Mind your own business, literally AND figuratively. This is my freely chosen profession and no one, nothing, can stop me from practising it, except my own will power, granted that I not fall into illness and disability.
What do you do for a living? I remind you that... I remind you that we all have a vocation in life, one just has to find and then observe it. I also remind you that it's okay to have a lot of thoughts, depiste what people say. Analysis actually leads to a traquil heart, not any form of "paralysis". If you don't like Wisdom A, change it for Wisdom B. If you don't like the smell of Wisdom, change its diapers. Something like that.
https://chumly.com/n/253ba29
I remind you that being the Man with the Recorder is a lot of work. I remind you that as I hold the digital recorder in my hand, I mustn't move, I mustn't even breath, least I myself show up in my recordings.
I remind you that I have worked very hard to achieve what I have achieved and that I will not accept you doubting the legitimacy of what I do. Lastly, I will remind you that I am my own final judge, and not you. Please keep your advice to yourself. Mind your own business, literally AND figuratively. This is my freely chosen profession and no one, nothing, can stop me from practising it, except my own will power, granted that I not fall into illness and disability.
What do you do for a living? I remind you that... I remind you that we all have a vocation in life, one just has to find and then observe it. I also remind you that it's okay to have a lot of thoughts, depiste what people say. Analysis actually leads to a traquil heart, not any form of "paralysis". If you don't like Wisdom A, change it for Wisdom B. If you don't like the smell of Wisdom, change its diapers. Something like that.
https://chumly.com/n/253ba29
lundi 28 avril 2014
dimanche 27 avril 2014
samedi 26 avril 2014
LUNE NOIRE ; Or, The Boy From The Cemetery
[Oil on canvas. From The Archives. Work purportedly stolen. A.G. (c) 2014]
https://chumly.com/n/252d392
https://chumly.com/n/252d392
Some Thoughts From August, 2006
All projects are history-projects.
All behaviors or actions are projects.
Action = a goal or proposal, the objective, is intended, then enacted in reality.
This resembles a project. A project is historical because it is a recorded past = the goal (past) is recorded, i.e. enacted, concretized, materialized, because the image or objective / goal comes from the past.
The action of the novel is the hist. project itself.
How the goal comes from the past. Purpose is implicit and the first cause of an object.
PURPOSE: to intend or plan – something one intends to get or do, aim 2 determination 3 the object for which something exists or is done.
A project is an organized undertaking, a proposal, a scheme.
A scheme is a systematic program for achieving some object OR an orderly combination of things on a definite plan OR a diagram.
Organize = to arrange for = to institute, establish.
Undertaking = something undertaken, task, enterprise = 2. a promise a guarantee.
History = the branch of knowledge that deals systematically with the past = all recorded past events.
Task = 1. a piece of work to be done 2 any difficult undertaking.
Task force = a group, esp. a military unit, assigned a specific task.
Taskmaster = one who assigns tasks to others, esp. when severe.
A.G. (c) 2014
https://chumly.com/n/252d087
All behaviors or actions are projects.
Action = a goal or proposal, the objective, is intended, then enacted in reality.
This resembles a project. A project is historical because it is a recorded past = the goal (past) is recorded, i.e. enacted, concretized, materialized, because the image or objective / goal comes from the past.
The action of the novel is the hist. project itself.
How the goal comes from the past. Purpose is implicit and the first cause of an object.
PURPOSE: to intend or plan – something one intends to get or do, aim 2 determination 3 the object for which something exists or is done.
A project is an organized undertaking, a proposal, a scheme.
A scheme is a systematic program for achieving some object OR an orderly combination of things on a definite plan OR a diagram.
Organize = to arrange for = to institute, establish.
Undertaking = something undertaken, task, enterprise = 2. a promise a guarantee.
History = the branch of knowledge that deals systematically with the past = all recorded past events.
Task = 1. a piece of work to be done 2 any difficult undertaking.
Task force = a group, esp. a military unit, assigned a specific task.
Taskmaster = one who assigns tasks to others, esp. when severe.
A.G. (c) 2014
https://chumly.com/n/252d087
vendredi 25 avril 2014
Thanking My Lucky Stars
I just wanted to take a moment and thank the Universe. I want to thank the Universe for being so kind to me, for never letting me truly go without the basic necessities of life. I want to thank the world for being so full of amazing people. I want to thank everyone that I meet for being such amazingly good people.
I want to thank the Universe for understanding that I get upset sometimes, and for forgiving me my excesses. Know that I always try to do my best, and that when I'm not being my Best Self, I am the first to be aware of it. It's up to me to try even harder in those trying moments. I cannot take credit for always making it out unscathed, though, there must be some power somewhere, a Star perhaps, that shines brightly down on me, that puts me out of harm's way, that saves me much grief and pain.
I want to thank all of the artists and artisans that came before me. You have all done such great work that it inspired me to take up the arts & to be a cultural worker. It is such a fine industry that you have built, and I appreciate that you built it out of pure sweat and tears and blood.
I do not think that anyone asks me to sacrifice myself for anything under the sun, and so I hope no one has sacrificed anything important in building such amazing industries. But I know that too many people HAVE sacrificed much, and though I can't say I am grateful for their sacrifice, I CAN say that I will make every minute of my life count and will be working to celebrate the work of all the workers in the arts & cultures that came before me.
You will not be forgotten, not on my watch. Every last bit of elbow grease shall be remembered and shall shine. Your memory is safe with me. Let's make the earth more beautiful than it was when we came onto this great promontory. Let every Act follow in perfect sequence, Scene by Scene. I think we can thank William Shakespeare for basically inventing the English language, which is such a wonderful tongue. English is my second language, as it is the second language of much of the earth for whom it wasn't the first language. Let us praise all those who have spoken in it, who have communicated through it, who have added their magic touch to it. Let us celebrate all human languages, for they are splendid and they are plentiful.
Let us not forget anyone. Life is hard. Times are tough. It's in moments like these that it is of Paramount importance that we remember to take a break and let it all seep in. Take a break and Thank Our Lucky Stars. Thank your lucky stars, you're in Texas (I once saw that written on a fine cigar box many years ago and it was so perfect I had to repeat it now, not even knowing what it really means deep down.)
That's it folks. I am thanking my Lucky Stars I'm in Texas.
https://chumly.com/n/252bb5d
I want to thank the Universe for understanding that I get upset sometimes, and for forgiving me my excesses. Know that I always try to do my best, and that when I'm not being my Best Self, I am the first to be aware of it. It's up to me to try even harder in those trying moments. I cannot take credit for always making it out unscathed, though, there must be some power somewhere, a Star perhaps, that shines brightly down on me, that puts me out of harm's way, that saves me much grief and pain.
I want to thank all of the artists and artisans that came before me. You have all done such great work that it inspired me to take up the arts & to be a cultural worker. It is such a fine industry that you have built, and I appreciate that you built it out of pure sweat and tears and blood.
I do not think that anyone asks me to sacrifice myself for anything under the sun, and so I hope no one has sacrificed anything important in building such amazing industries. But I know that too many people HAVE sacrificed much, and though I can't say I am grateful for their sacrifice, I CAN say that I will make every minute of my life count and will be working to celebrate the work of all the workers in the arts & cultures that came before me.
You will not be forgotten, not on my watch. Every last bit of elbow grease shall be remembered and shall shine. Your memory is safe with me. Let's make the earth more beautiful than it was when we came onto this great promontory. Let every Act follow in perfect sequence, Scene by Scene. I think we can thank William Shakespeare for basically inventing the English language, which is such a wonderful tongue. English is my second language, as it is the second language of much of the earth for whom it wasn't the first language. Let us praise all those who have spoken in it, who have communicated through it, who have added their magic touch to it. Let us celebrate all human languages, for they are splendid and they are plentiful.
Let us not forget anyone. Life is hard. Times are tough. It's in moments like these that it is of Paramount importance that we remember to take a break and let it all seep in. Take a break and Thank Our Lucky Stars. Thank your lucky stars, you're in Texas (I once saw that written on a fine cigar box many years ago and it was so perfect I had to repeat it now, not even knowing what it really means deep down.)
That's it folks. I am thanking my Lucky Stars I'm in Texas.
https://chumly.com/n/252bb5d
mercredi 23 avril 2014
Why is Alex seemingly upset?
The answer to that is always simple. Every once in a while, I get in a less-than-ideal Mood. I like to think that it happens to the best of us, that we are all human and that we all have moods. It is only natural that sometimes we experience basic emotions, attitudes, moods, that are Less-than-Desired, i.e. are Disagreeable.
But really, beneath my seeming anger and dissatisfaction, is Sorrow. It is almost always Sorrow. Let me explain.
Like anyone else, I have had situations in my life that we, let's say, Difficult. We have all felt what it feels like to be Lonely, to feel Alone. We have all felt what it is like to have a sort of Moral Suffering, like feeling we are being antagonized, even persecuted. Often we even realize that we feared something that turned out to be unfounded, etc.
To put it short, we've all felt things that were Disagreeable. Now, being an artist, I do tend to spot things in my art that are less-than-ideal. Sometimes it is as simple and concrete as a hair from a paintbrush finding its way into a painting, stuck in the actual paint. That can be a difficult surgical operation, to remove the hair that dried in the paint itself without messing up the painting. In short, I experience all kinds of "Disagreeable" in my painting as well as my sound design and writing.
So be it. That doesn't tend to affect my mood. However, I can easily grow nostalgic, partly because I'm just built that way. I tend to see lots and lots of beauty in the universe, so much so that it makes me feel pretty depressed. I see extreme beauty, I see how wonderful and splendid and miraculous Love and Joy can be in something as simple as a basic human life. Even the martyrs themselves, the actual martyrs martyred for their beliefs in the early centuries of our era, even they had supreme Joys, and they were martyred. In fact, Joy is how you know that you're on the right path. If there is no Joy, you're doing it wrong. Yes, that's a statement on the side about false martyrs, false prophets, etc. No one chooses martyrdom, it's all in God's hands. All we can do is choose what kind of life we want to live. The simpler the better.
But that stuff, in any case, is not what upsets me or makes me sorrowful. It really is just the profound beauty I see in everything. I grow melancholic over it. And yes, I have been disrespected before, I have even been abused, but that's not really what I'm thinking about these days. I know it comes out like that, the words that come out of my mouth make it seem like that's what the current issue is, but that would be entirely false. There is nothing wrong with this picture. There is nothing wrong with Alex.
That's the truth, and I know it's hard to believe, since, "The lady doth protest too much, methinks." I am really just sitting here at the computer staring at a bookshelf. Or else I'm in the Atelier working on something. I have so much wonderful work to do that I don't have time to feel depressed or experience very much chagrin and sorrow and woe and so forth. I really am filled with Joys Supreme, most of the time . But that can't always be seen or deciphered or diagnosed "from the outside".
Most of my life is internal, and the day you can see inside my soul is the day I tell you you suffer from delusions of grandeur, because only one Person can see inside my heart and soul, and that is my Lord the Christ-Jesus. I know, it sounds crazy for a 36 year old philosopher, scholar, researcher, artist to be saying such things. O my Jesus! People think I am not being earnest, that I am joking, but I am not. When you hear me singing, "O my Jesus!" I really am singing it from the bottom of my soul. If you can't accept that, so be it. You can't stop me from adoring my baby Jesus.
So yes, I do feel angry at times, and try not to vehicle anything beyond a basic righteous indignation. I do not want to be choleric, it's enough being melancholic. But I see corruption everywhere, and though I don't want to make a fuss about it, sometimes it gets the better of me. By corruption, I mean anything which corrupts the human soul, namely, sin in any and all of its forms.
Sin, you know, really is much simpler than most people would think. It's just proof that we are imperfect. Sin is a little pockmark on each of our souls or whatnot, that differentiates it from the others, and that differentiates it from being God Himself. Until we ressurrect and sit at the right hand of God with the Christ-Jesus Himself, or Become-The-Face-of-God, One with Him, we have this little spot on our hearts... Our souls are tainted with this little pockmark... I call it a noise-bit. It is a 1-bit noisy signal in our hearts, our souls, that is the cause of all of our woe. I tend to be choleric and that's my pockmark. I have tendencies that cause me pain, tendencies that I do not enjoy within myself, and I can grow angry because of them. But that has nothing to do with you or anybody else. That's between myself and God, and I realize how ludicrous that sounds.
The point is, though, that commenting on it, or criticizing it in public, is not going to make it go away. In fact, there's nothing else I can do to help with my little pockmarked spirit and soul that I'm not already doing. So you know, this can be an immense source of fatigue and weariness amongst Christians, the sensation of being abandoned by God, of living in a "desert" of sorts, abandoned by Him... feeling that we are alone, and so forth. Saint-Teresa of Avila, a great mystic and Saint, called them "Spiritual Aridities", though I translate and paraphrase (and take out of context). It just means that we are often as in an arid landscape, the desert, and that's okay. We are human and must feel the full gamut of emotions, INCLUDING THE DISAGREEABLE ONES!
Can we agree that we all have the right to our emotions, and that YOU are NOT responsible for MY EMOTIONS??? If I should feel righteous indignation with regard to my own pockmarked soul, what do you have to do with this, really? It's not about you, it's not even about me. We all suffer from the same basic flaws, the flaws of our being humanoid. So be it. Let it go. We're not going to solve that today. Let's work on some other problem that we can actual work to solve, together, or alone.. But let's not stop working! We are making such great progress, taking such great strides! I am happy today. The sky in this region, and in Alex Land, is slightly overcast, and the temperature is a little below average, but that's okay. We will make today the best of days. We will make today the best of days. We will make today the best of days. Have mercy on us, Lord! O my Jesus! Amen.
https://chumly.com/n/251e341
But really, beneath my seeming anger and dissatisfaction, is Sorrow. It is almost always Sorrow. Let me explain.
Like anyone else, I have had situations in my life that we, let's say, Difficult. We have all felt what it feels like to be Lonely, to feel Alone. We have all felt what it is like to have a sort of Moral Suffering, like feeling we are being antagonized, even persecuted. Often we even realize that we feared something that turned out to be unfounded, etc.
To put it short, we've all felt things that were Disagreeable. Now, being an artist, I do tend to spot things in my art that are less-than-ideal. Sometimes it is as simple and concrete as a hair from a paintbrush finding its way into a painting, stuck in the actual paint. That can be a difficult surgical operation, to remove the hair that dried in the paint itself without messing up the painting. In short, I experience all kinds of "Disagreeable" in my painting as well as my sound design and writing.
So be it. That doesn't tend to affect my mood. However, I can easily grow nostalgic, partly because I'm just built that way. I tend to see lots and lots of beauty in the universe, so much so that it makes me feel pretty depressed. I see extreme beauty, I see how wonderful and splendid and miraculous Love and Joy can be in something as simple as a basic human life. Even the martyrs themselves, the actual martyrs martyred for their beliefs in the early centuries of our era, even they had supreme Joys, and they were martyred. In fact, Joy is how you know that you're on the right path. If there is no Joy, you're doing it wrong. Yes, that's a statement on the side about false martyrs, false prophets, etc. No one chooses martyrdom, it's all in God's hands. All we can do is choose what kind of life we want to live. The simpler the better.
But that stuff, in any case, is not what upsets me or makes me sorrowful. It really is just the profound beauty I see in everything. I grow melancholic over it. And yes, I have been disrespected before, I have even been abused, but that's not really what I'm thinking about these days. I know it comes out like that, the words that come out of my mouth make it seem like that's what the current issue is, but that would be entirely false. There is nothing wrong with this picture. There is nothing wrong with Alex.
That's the truth, and I know it's hard to believe, since, "The lady doth protest too much, methinks." I am really just sitting here at the computer staring at a bookshelf. Or else I'm in the Atelier working on something. I have so much wonderful work to do that I don't have time to feel depressed or experience very much chagrin and sorrow and woe and so forth. I really am filled with Joys Supreme, most of the time . But that can't always be seen or deciphered or diagnosed "from the outside".
Most of my life is internal, and the day you can see inside my soul is the day I tell you you suffer from delusions of grandeur, because only one Person can see inside my heart and soul, and that is my Lord the Christ-Jesus. I know, it sounds crazy for a 36 year old philosopher, scholar, researcher, artist to be saying such things. O my Jesus! People think I am not being earnest, that I am joking, but I am not. When you hear me singing, "O my Jesus!" I really am singing it from the bottom of my soul. If you can't accept that, so be it. You can't stop me from adoring my baby Jesus.
So yes, I do feel angry at times, and try not to vehicle anything beyond a basic righteous indignation. I do not want to be choleric, it's enough being melancholic. But I see corruption everywhere, and though I don't want to make a fuss about it, sometimes it gets the better of me. By corruption, I mean anything which corrupts the human soul, namely, sin in any and all of its forms.
Sin, you know, really is much simpler than most people would think. It's just proof that we are imperfect. Sin is a little pockmark on each of our souls or whatnot, that differentiates it from the others, and that differentiates it from being God Himself. Until we ressurrect and sit at the right hand of God with the Christ-Jesus Himself, or Become-The-Face-of-God, One with Him, we have this little spot on our hearts... Our souls are tainted with this little pockmark... I call it a noise-bit. It is a 1-bit noisy signal in our hearts, our souls, that is the cause of all of our woe. I tend to be choleric and that's my pockmark. I have tendencies that cause me pain, tendencies that I do not enjoy within myself, and I can grow angry because of them. But that has nothing to do with you or anybody else. That's between myself and God, and I realize how ludicrous that sounds.
The point is, though, that commenting on it, or criticizing it in public, is not going to make it go away. In fact, there's nothing else I can do to help with my little pockmarked spirit and soul that I'm not already doing. So you know, this can be an immense source of fatigue and weariness amongst Christians, the sensation of being abandoned by God, of living in a "desert" of sorts, abandoned by Him... feeling that we are alone, and so forth. Saint-Teresa of Avila, a great mystic and Saint, called them "Spiritual Aridities", though I translate and paraphrase (and take out of context). It just means that we are often as in an arid landscape, the desert, and that's okay. We are human and must feel the full gamut of emotions, INCLUDING THE DISAGREEABLE ONES!
Can we agree that we all have the right to our emotions, and that YOU are NOT responsible for MY EMOTIONS??? If I should feel righteous indignation with regard to my own pockmarked soul, what do you have to do with this, really? It's not about you, it's not even about me. We all suffer from the same basic flaws, the flaws of our being humanoid. So be it. Let it go. We're not going to solve that today. Let's work on some other problem that we can actual work to solve, together, or alone.. But let's not stop working! We are making such great progress, taking such great strides! I am happy today. The sky in this region, and in Alex Land, is slightly overcast, and the temperature is a little below average, but that's okay. We will make today the best of days. We will make today the best of days. We will make today the best of days. Have mercy on us, Lord! O my Jesus! Amen.
https://chumly.com/n/251e341
mardi 22 avril 2014
lundi 21 avril 2014
samedi 19 avril 2014
vendredi 18 avril 2014
NEW CLOCKWORK - A New Vision of Theory
I guess that you could say I did not have the choice but to learn some theoretical computer science at some point in my life. I have dedicated the last 3 years to doing just that: I have been educating myself, learning to program, to code, and learning all the related mathematics and theoretical computer science.
While I have learned a great deal of theory, I haven't practised programming nearly as much as I could have. That's alright, I permit myself a little slacking off during the first 3 years of endeavors into a entirely new domain. In this case, there was a lot of ground to cover and I think that I did an okay job. I am not mad at myself for slacking off just a little.
Things, however, are beginning to look pretty serious. There's one thing they don't tell you in the Tom Peters' styled books about "Becoming a Personal Brand" or whatnot, you know what kinds of books I am referring to. What they forget to tell you is that => IT WORKS! Yes, it works. From Tom Peters through Anthony Robbins, Dr. Wayne Dyer, and all the way to Seth Godin & Cie, this stuff really works.
That's the difficult part. You have to be ready to assume, to own up to, your own SUCCESS. Success is not all fun and games, do you realize that? My motto often is => Be Careful What You Wish For (#BCWYWF). It's so true, it hurts just to think about it.
So while I haven't built any software yet, I find myself more and more surrounded by amazing people, amazing people that just want to work with me, people that go out of their way to make me happy, to give me things that I need, to help me help myself. People want to know how I can help them help themselves, or how they can help me help them, or help me help myself. Everywhere around me is a positive ambience, the morale is high, teams are working 24/7 to make amazing happens and in the middle of all of this, here I am, the little artist that I always strove to be... has become a veritable GIANT!
Be careful what you wish for! I am a giant now. Being a giant comes with great responsibilities. I must be held accountable for every word that comes out of my mouth, for every action that I do. It doesn't matter if what I say or do is SEEN or UNSEEN. I must nevertheless hold myself to the highest standard at all times. Too much is resting on my ability to see this through, this Phase if you will of my Existence. Too many people have put all of their faith in me.
What else can I do but outperform their highest expectations of me? I know it sounds like this might be a dangerous game to play, that I might be setting myself up for failure. That might have been true with the Old Alex, but the New Alex has so many people cheering him on failure is unlikely. We're all on the same team. The power of Alex is to bring everyone onto the same team. We iron out our differences, we put our non-negotiable terms up front and center, and we work around them.
We make headway every day and every night, we are moving closer to wonderful solutions being launched into the world. We are giving birth to Ideas and Projects of great Beauty. We are mesmerized by all the greatness of this little human animal that we are.
We are optimistic about the future. We are pessimistic too, when we need to be. We are sceptical about how great our successes will be and are pleasantly surprised when we not only hit the mark but did twice or thrice as good as we had anticipated.
Life is great and it really is a festival only to the wise. Ralph Waldo Emerson said that, if I'm not mistaken. Life is a festival only to the wise, and one can't buy Wisdom at the supermarket. They don't necessarily make wisdom in Taiwan. Wisdom is certainly not just a piece of paper in a cookie you just opened after a meal.
This is not to knock or poke fun at anyone, at any nation, people, or person. I am only saying that Wisdom in my experience tends to come from the school of Hard Knocks. You're at Hard Knocks Hotel between a Rock and a Hard Place, and wisdom takes possession of you. Wisdom takes possession of your spirit, of your soul, of your mind and body, and you outperform the greatest of the optimistic projections. You become yourself, truly become oneself, and Become a Name, like Ulysses in Lord Alfred Tennyson's poem of the same name.
…I am become a name;
For always roaming with a hungry heart
Much have I seen and known – cities of men
And manners, climates, councils, governments,
Myself not least, but honoured of them all –
And drunk delight of battle with my peers,
Far on the ringing plains of windy Troy,
I am a part of all that I have met;
Yet all experience is an arch wherethrough
Gleams that untravelled world, whose margin fades
For ever and for ever when I move.
How dull it is to pause, to make an end,
To rust unburnished, not to shine in use!
As though to breathe were life!...
https://chumly.com/n/2508408
While I have learned a great deal of theory, I haven't practised programming nearly as much as I could have. That's alright, I permit myself a little slacking off during the first 3 years of endeavors into a entirely new domain. In this case, there was a lot of ground to cover and I think that I did an okay job. I am not mad at myself for slacking off just a little.
Things, however, are beginning to look pretty serious. There's one thing they don't tell you in the Tom Peters' styled books about "Becoming a Personal Brand" or whatnot, you know what kinds of books I am referring to. What they forget to tell you is that => IT WORKS! Yes, it works. From Tom Peters through Anthony Robbins, Dr. Wayne Dyer, and all the way to Seth Godin & Cie, this stuff really works.
That's the difficult part. You have to be ready to assume, to own up to, your own SUCCESS. Success is not all fun and games, do you realize that? My motto often is => Be Careful What You Wish For (#BCWYWF). It's so true, it hurts just to think about it.
So while I haven't built any software yet, I find myself more and more surrounded by amazing people, amazing people that just want to work with me, people that go out of their way to make me happy, to give me things that I need, to help me help myself. People want to know how I can help them help themselves, or how they can help me help them, or help me help myself. Everywhere around me is a positive ambience, the morale is high, teams are working 24/7 to make amazing happens and in the middle of all of this, here I am, the little artist that I always strove to be... has become a veritable GIANT!
Be careful what you wish for! I am a giant now. Being a giant comes with great responsibilities. I must be held accountable for every word that comes out of my mouth, for every action that I do. It doesn't matter if what I say or do is SEEN or UNSEEN. I must nevertheless hold myself to the highest standard at all times. Too much is resting on my ability to see this through, this Phase if you will of my Existence. Too many people have put all of their faith in me.
What else can I do but outperform their highest expectations of me? I know it sounds like this might be a dangerous game to play, that I might be setting myself up for failure. That might have been true with the Old Alex, but the New Alex has so many people cheering him on failure is unlikely. We're all on the same team. The power of Alex is to bring everyone onto the same team. We iron out our differences, we put our non-negotiable terms up front and center, and we work around them.
We make headway every day and every night, we are moving closer to wonderful solutions being launched into the world. We are giving birth to Ideas and Projects of great Beauty. We are mesmerized by all the greatness of this little human animal that we are.
We are optimistic about the future. We are pessimistic too, when we need to be. We are sceptical about how great our successes will be and are pleasantly surprised when we not only hit the mark but did twice or thrice as good as we had anticipated.
Life is great and it really is a festival only to the wise. Ralph Waldo Emerson said that, if I'm not mistaken. Life is a festival only to the wise, and one can't buy Wisdom at the supermarket. They don't necessarily make wisdom in Taiwan. Wisdom is certainly not just a piece of paper in a cookie you just opened after a meal.
This is not to knock or poke fun at anyone, at any nation, people, or person. I am only saying that Wisdom in my experience tends to come from the school of Hard Knocks. You're at Hard Knocks Hotel between a Rock and a Hard Place, and wisdom takes possession of you. Wisdom takes possession of your spirit, of your soul, of your mind and body, and you outperform the greatest of the optimistic projections. You become yourself, truly become oneself, and Become a Name, like Ulysses in Lord Alfred Tennyson's poem of the same name.
…I am become a name;
For always roaming with a hungry heart
Much have I seen and known – cities of men
And manners, climates, councils, governments,
Myself not least, but honoured of them all –
And drunk delight of battle with my peers,
Far on the ringing plains of windy Troy,
I am a part of all that I have met;
Yet all experience is an arch wherethrough
Gleams that untravelled world, whose margin fades
For ever and for ever when I move.
How dull it is to pause, to make an end,
To rust unburnished, not to shine in use!
As though to breathe were life!...
https://chumly.com/n/2508408
jeudi 17 avril 2014
[Antisynthesis]
S1: System; S2: Non-System; ~S1: Antisystem; ~S2: Antinonsystem. [A.G. (c) 2014]
https://chumly.com/n/24ff7b3
https://chumly.com/n/24ff7b3
[Antisynthesis]
S1: Pattern; S2: Antipattern; ~S1: Patternless; ~S2: Antipatternless. [A.G. (c) 2014]
https://chumly.com/n/24ff7ab
https://chumly.com/n/24ff7ab
mercredi 16 avril 2014
mardi 15 avril 2014
lundi 14 avril 2014
What is Alex Doing?
Basically, I am doing only one thing, the only thing I have ever done: I am working my butt off to ensure that my work as an artist grows in value linearly over time. I do not want there to be any other type of growth. It has to be slow and sure, never fast, explosive, meteoric.
Therefore, everything you see coming out of the #MAGHAUS or House of Mag, is not only 100% original, authentic, genuine, but it is also part of a serial method of continuous improvement. I work on my past failures AND successes, and turn it all into pure beauty, philosophically sound, profound, sublime.
I truly am a marvel, a Wonder of the World. I take almost no credit for it, however. I have worked hard, but believe that this is the only thing an individual person ever CAN do. We only ever do our best, and I refuse to be rewarded merely for doing what I think is Right, Good, True, and what I think I have no real choice but to be doing.
So what is Alex DOING? He is doing the only thing he knows how to do, the only thing he can do. It is growing linearly and is truly mesmerizing at this point. And I haven't even begun. You'll never believe how scalable my Art Operation is. I can scale it so incredibly that I fear it could risk shutting down the Internet. What you've seen over the last several months is me IN SLOW BUT SURE MODE. Don't make me take it into HYPER MODE.
A.G. (c) 2014
https://chumly.com/n/24eaa41
Therefore, everything you see coming out of the #MAGHAUS or House of Mag, is not only 100% original, authentic, genuine, but it is also part of a serial method of continuous improvement. I work on my past failures AND successes, and turn it all into pure beauty, philosophically sound, profound, sublime.
I truly am a marvel, a Wonder of the World. I take almost no credit for it, however. I have worked hard, but believe that this is the only thing an individual person ever CAN do. We only ever do our best, and I refuse to be rewarded merely for doing what I think is Right, Good, True, and what I think I have no real choice but to be doing.
So what is Alex DOING? He is doing the only thing he knows how to do, the only thing he can do. It is growing linearly and is truly mesmerizing at this point. And I haven't even begun. You'll never believe how scalable my Art Operation is. I can scale it so incredibly that I fear it could risk shutting down the Internet. What you've seen over the last several months is me IN SLOW BUT SURE MODE. Don't make me take it into HYPER MODE.
A.G. (c) 2014
https://chumly.com/n/24eaa41
dimanche 13 avril 2014
MONKEY SEE, MONKEY DO
[Alex enjoying his time in Nature, in the mountain of Mont-Saint-Hilaire, Qc.]
https://chumly.com/n/24e5b30
https://chumly.com/n/24e5b30
TRIUMPHAL ENTRY OF ALEX
[Alex acting the part of someone with reduced mobility. Mont-Saint-Hilaire, Qc.]
https://chumly.com/n/24e5a8a
https://chumly.com/n/24e5a8a
samedi 12 avril 2014
Status Report on MOOC-Taking Adventure
Over the last 3 years or so, I have taken countless MOOCs (Massive open on-line courses). I went from knowing very little about computer programming and other hot topics in theoretical computer science. Now I know a little bit more than nothing. I find that amazing. Total cost: 0$, all but a simple internet connection (low bandwidth too!).
I won't list the MOOCs that I've taken since I have taken close to 200 of them so far. Granted, I didn't finish them all and I never got a passing grade on a single MOOC I took. The problem, though, I can assure you, is with the MOOC designs, and NOT with my abilities, performance, etc.
I just can't take a bunch of tests when there is overt competition between students. I actually stopped participating in the on-line discussions around MOOCs for the same reason, i.e. competition that I found malodorous, not to my taste. Also, none of the MOOCs that I have participated in were adapted for people with disabilities.
For a while, I stopped participating altogether. I stopped taking MOOCs. I figured that I had learned just about as much as I ever would, at least with regard to MOOC-taking. My opinion on this matter has changed, though. I am back in the MOOC-taking business and hope to soon be the most educated person on planet earth.
Cause that's the kind of competition I'm in for, not this blazé ego-trip from the habitués of Pornographic Reddit Ego-Stroking, a.k.a. Narcotizing the Ego, the Social Ego Narcotic, etc. I am ahead of my time. I had to accept it, but can YOU?
Here is an Abstract, Imaginary Integrated Circuit Topography. The real circuits I will be building from anywhere between 10-15, even 20-30 years. Codename: AntiOS, The Antiface Chip, and so on and so forth, so help me Almighty Lord.
A.G. (c) 2014
https://chumly.com/n/24e17e7
I won't list the MOOCs that I've taken since I have taken close to 200 of them so far. Granted, I didn't finish them all and I never got a passing grade on a single MOOC I took. The problem, though, I can assure you, is with the MOOC designs, and NOT with my abilities, performance, etc.
I just can't take a bunch of tests when there is overt competition between students. I actually stopped participating in the on-line discussions around MOOCs for the same reason, i.e. competition that I found malodorous, not to my taste. Also, none of the MOOCs that I have participated in were adapted for people with disabilities.
For a while, I stopped participating altogether. I stopped taking MOOCs. I figured that I had learned just about as much as I ever would, at least with regard to MOOC-taking. My opinion on this matter has changed, though. I am back in the MOOC-taking business and hope to soon be the most educated person on planet earth.
Cause that's the kind of competition I'm in for, not this blazé ego-trip from the habitués of Pornographic Reddit Ego-Stroking, a.k.a. Narcotizing the Ego, the Social Ego Narcotic, etc. I am ahead of my time. I had to accept it, but can YOU?
Here is an Abstract, Imaginary Integrated Circuit Topography. The real circuits I will be building from anywhere between 10-15, even 20-30 years. Codename: AntiOS, The Antiface Chip, and so on and so forth, so help me Almighty Lord.
A.G. (c) 2014
https://chumly.com/n/24e17e7
vendredi 11 avril 2014
UNFINISHED - Numbers on a Blackboard
Remembering the iconic dissidence. Infamous storia, Biblical, the unknown unknown. Blake light-tragedy. A Proem for Lost Souls. Gogol’s appetite for seduction.
Books lining the shelf. A working desk, a work-station, a writing-desk. Furniture for the Soul.
Remembering the aromatic fragrance of something once lost.
Apple orchards we grew up in, the bitter taste of fresh Macintosh apples in the Apple Valley.
The Richelieu Valley, the Monteregion hills. Who will vanquish the soaring minds of half-prophets? Prophets of the absurd, puppetmen of blackened, feverish visions.
History engraved in stone, cemented for eternity in these old Monuments.
A boring effigy, miniature little thing, but what effort it took to make her shine with such intrepid beauty!
Mathematical elegance, theoretical, logical figuration and forms.
You do the math, the backward black and apathetic calculations.
Numbers on a blackboard. Naught but numbers on a blackboard, these Demoiselles.
Picasso was a great French painter who was a Spanish painter by tradition and a Catalan man. Cultural assimilation, inculturation, cultural enterprises.
The economuseum, economuseology. Applied ethnology. Techno-ethnography, from sharp stones to smart phones.
The Samizdat Library. Alexandrian documentarian philosophers. P. Otlet, R.I.P.
A.G. (c) 2014
https://chumly.com/n/24d96af
Books lining the shelf. A working desk, a work-station, a writing-desk. Furniture for the Soul.
Remembering the aromatic fragrance of something once lost.
Apple orchards we grew up in, the bitter taste of fresh Macintosh apples in the Apple Valley.
The Richelieu Valley, the Monteregion hills. Who will vanquish the soaring minds of half-prophets? Prophets of the absurd, puppetmen of blackened, feverish visions.
History engraved in stone, cemented for eternity in these old Monuments.
A boring effigy, miniature little thing, but what effort it took to make her shine with such intrepid beauty!
Mathematical elegance, theoretical, logical figuration and forms.
You do the math, the backward black and apathetic calculations.
Numbers on a blackboard. Naught but numbers on a blackboard, these Demoiselles.
Picasso was a great French painter who was a Spanish painter by tradition and a Catalan man. Cultural assimilation, inculturation, cultural enterprises.
The economuseum, economuseology. Applied ethnology. Techno-ethnography, from sharp stones to smart phones.
The Samizdat Library. Alexandrian documentarian philosophers. P. Otlet, R.I.P.
A.G. (c) 2014
https://chumly.com/n/24d96af
jeudi 10 avril 2014
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