Living the Liminal

I waste time. Lots of it. I waste time by surfing the web, making sure I am caught up on the latest status updates on Facebook, reading blogs, watching shows on Hulu, tinkering with my computer’s desktop and settings. If there’s a television around, I am good at wasting time by channel surfing and watching nothing in particular. All in all, given that I’m not working right now and have my days free, I should be making better use of my time than I have been. Significantly better use of my time, damn it!

I have always had a great deal of trouble focusing as a writer when I don’t have my very own space to hole up inside. Even as a child, I used to love taking a large cardboard box and moving all my toys and books inside of it. My mom tells me that when I made a “den” like that I didn’t want to leave it, and that, if left to my own, I probably would have slept inside the box rather than my bed. So yeah, doing the basement living thing and not having my own space doesn’t help.

As much as that might be a valid reason for my lack of focus and productivity, it doesn’t even come close to being a good excuse. Additionally, my proclivity toward procrastination doesn’t disappear when I have my own place, my own “room with a view,” so to speak. I am trying to be more mindful of the ways in which I waste time and attempting to change my habits, especially while sitting at my computer, in order to make better use of my time. The following are a few ideas that I’m trying out or planning on implementing in the near future.

Offloading content to my iPhone

Because I want my computer to become more of a tool rather than a time-waste, I am shifting some of my daily digital consumption to my phone. To start, I’m changing my rss feed reader. While I’ve been using Newsfire (and quite liked it), there is no way to sync it with the iPhone. So last night I switched to NetNewsWire and signed up for the free account on Newsgator. This way, all my rss feeds are synced to my phone. What if I see something in my news feeds while on my phone that I want to blog about or send to someone? The app allows you to “clip” a post or email a post. If you clip it, the next time you open NetNewsReader on your phone, that post will show up in a folder called, oddly enough, “clippings.” Too often I find myself using the mental excuse that reading my news feeds is important and so I should do it whenever I have the slightest mental pause or block regarding what I’m currently working on. I hope that by shifting my news to my iPhone, I won’t give in to the digression of constantly updating news feeds.

Related to this strategy is to make sure that I have subscribed to all of my friend’s rss feeds and then deleting the bookmarks to their blogs on my Safari bookmark bar.

I just opened up Safari and deleted my Facebook bookmark. Sure, accessing it is as simple as typing “facebook” in the address bar, but I also logged out and the next time I log in will not check off the “keep me logged in box.” While I will still have to log in to create notes or post links, I can simply use my phone to keep up on my friends status and postings. The iPhone app is quite good and allows me to perform most of the functions I use on Facebook (status updates, posting photos, sending messages, chatting, reading posts) on a regular basis. Of course it remains relatively easy for me to pull up Facebook and log in and waste time, but I think that by adding some steps into the process I will become more mindful of when and why I’m going to the site. Mindful is good. the iPhone app is quite good and allows me to perform most of the functions I use on Facebook (status updates, posting photos, sending messages, chatting, reading posts) on a regular basis

Desktop Strategies

Really, if you are a Mac user and want to increase your productivity or streamline your workflow, you should take a close look at Quicksilver. I have just set up QS to act as my portal into web searches. So now, instead of opening up Safari and entering search terms, I simply invoke QS, type “goog” hit the tab key twice and enter my search terms. This isn’t about saving massive amounts of time (although it probably shaves a second or two off searching the web), but keeping my focus on task so that when the internet appears before me, it does so for a specific reason. For info on how to set this up, go here.

For several months now, I have been cultivating the habit of closing Mail and iChat in order to mitigate against random distractions. Overall, it has been helpful, but I’ve just decided—literally as I write this sentence—to move Mail off my dock. Seeing as I have Quicksilver, I can open the program just as quickly (if not more so) than using the dock icon, but I find that if I have a momentary pause in my work flow and the Mail icon is right there, staring at me as if to say “open me, open me now to see if you have new mail so you can be reassured that people like you, they really really like you.” Out of sight doesn’t really equal out of mind when it comes to checking email, but maybe it will help me check my mail less obsessively often.

The introduction of “stacks” to OS X Leopard, was a mixed bag for many people. In one of the recent updates however, Apple returned an important function that they left out originally: allowing you to “drill down” through folders to find a file. For example, here is my “In Progress” folder using the grid function: The problem with this is that if I click on one of my folders, it opens in Finder and I still have to continue searching in order to find the file I want. In list view, however, I can navigate easily and directly to the file I want to open. The point here is to get to your task directly.

Of course, Spotlight can also be used to open documents directly,¹ and there is no longer the need to keep myself locked to the file folder metaphor. In fact, using Spotlight, you don’t even have to remove your fingers from the keyboard to open up the proper file. I should be using it more often than I do and, starting now, will make a concerted effort to do so.

Using and learning keyboard shortcuts can be a big help. They aren’t just about accomplishing tasks faster than using the mouse or trackpad. As a writer, the less I have to take my fingers off the keys, the less distraction I have from accomplishing my immediate goal. I use keyboard shortcuts more than a lot of other people I know, but not nearly as much I as want. To use them effectively, you have practice and actually take the time to lose focus in order to learn the shortcut. In the short term, trying to learn keyboard shortcuts can be frustrating, but once you know them they can really help keep your focus on the task at hand. Focus is good. There’s a cool widget available for Macs called “xCuts” that provides a comprehensive list of shortcuts that you might find helpful.

Other Ideas

Sit up straight. Really, sit up straight. As I’ve been working on this post, I’ve been sitting at a desk, my feet on the ground and my back straight. My focus has been exponentially greater than the past few weeks when using my laptop on a futon, or reclining in a chair with my feet up.

If you find yourself losing focus, take a few deep breaths. Oxygen is good for the brain.

If you are working at a computer and need a break from the task at hand, take a break from the computer itself. Walk, stretch, read an actual book or magazine, write using a pen and paper, do something to clear your mind and refocus your energies. I don’t think reading your email or checking your blogs will be as effective for refocusing your energies as doing something that doesn’t involve a screen.

Don’t give in to distraction when you have a mental pause or block. Close your eyes, or look out the window or walk around for a moment and then work through the block. Basically, don’t let your mind trick you into relaxing instead of focusing. Otherwise you will find yourself distracted on a regular basis when your mind figures out that it can unilaterally call off your concentration with the proverbial “hey look at that shiny, shiny object/weblink/YouTube video/blogpost/LOL Cat.”

Find ways to separate your computer-as-tool from computer-as-entertainment. One idea that I just had is to set up a profile that I switch into when I know that I will be using my computer strictly for entertainment. This profile would highlight the web as well as games and media on my computer. If I could get into the habit of turning to this profile whenever I wanted to watch a movie or surf the web or basically waste time, then I might be able to be more mindful of the tool/entertainment distinction.

There are as many remedies and strategies for addressing distractions and procrastination as there are distractions and ways to procrastinate. As Merlin Mann points out in his post “Time, Attention, and Creative Work:”

Except inasmuch as it can help move aside barriers to finishing the projects that you claim matter to you, “productivity” is often a sprawling ghetto of well-marketed nonsense for people who really just need a ritalin and a hug. So, for myself, random tips and lists that aren’t anchored to solving a real-world problem for a smart but flawed adult with a mind are dead to me.

The ideas and strategies I have proposed here are definitely geared to my productivity, my creative processes. I hope, however, that some of them might be useful in your own battle against the dissipation of your time and energies. Entropy is easy. Making things is hard. I know that I need every advantage I can get in my struggle for the focus and discipline that I need as an artist and so I will try to follow the ideas I have proposed here, but I would also love to hear some of your own ideas about how to avoid wasting your time.

1. for documents that you know the name of it is, I think, even better than Quicksilver [↩]

A drabble is a story of exactly 100 words that is presented on Norm Sherman’s fiction podcast, The Drabblecast. Yours truly will be having his drabble, “Allergies,” published on the podcast this week. If you like listening to stories, especially stories of the weirder variety, this is a podcast you should be subscribed to, regardless of my brief contribution. Mr. Sherman has a very good reading voice, an excellent ear for sound and ambient effects, and publishes some delightfully odd tales.

The show should post this Wednesday, so head over to The Drabblecast to check it out.

[Cross-posted on Daily Kos]

I was sitting in a Baptist church in Maryland when I saw a spider on the pew in front of me. I was maybe 10, maybe 11 at the time and I remember thinking to myself, “if this was a poisonous spider and it bit me right now and I died, I’d go to hell because I haven’t been baptized.” Within the week, I had approached my parents, with all the gravitas of a child making a monumental decision, and told them that I wanted to be baptized. And so, sometime during the following months, I was stripped to my skivvies, dressed up in a white robe, taken out to a fount, dunked under the water and “saved.” Honestly though, I don’t remember any of the baptism, I remember the spider and the fear of hell and the thought that I would be tortured forever and ever.

By the time I was 13 or 14, however, my perspective of the world had shifted quite considerably. Nobody has a more finely honed sense of injustice than a sensitive child who is moving into adolescence. Not only do such people feel the injustices of the world, but, as they edge into their teens, they begin to burn with the self-righteousness that is inherent to all teenagers. By my early teen years, my sense of right and wrong was shocked and outraged at the notion that a being powerful enough to create a universe could be so petty as to condemn a soul to eternal damnation for simply not believing in him/it. I felt that this was a fundamentally insane proposition. If my own ethics balked at the proposition of punishment without end, how could something capable of creating a universe have less compassion than a teenage boy? The cognitive dissonance that I felt trying to accommodate what seems like emotions of jealousy, cruelty, and revenge to a supposedly “loving God” created an emotional impasse. I could either claim to be a Christian and yet not accept certain parts of the Bible (and, in fact, actively despising a god that ordered the slaughter of innocent children), or I could walk away from the whole thing.

I walked away.

Nothing in my experiences and life since has convinced me that I made the wrong choice, because, ultimately, I do not believe in the world view that is espoused by Christianity and other religions. I do not believe that there is a God.

Yet, I have a strong sense of ethics and believe myself to be a moral person. Not perfect, not angelic, but I am not a sociopath. Heck, I’m not even very mean to people I don’t like. I have survived my atheism with a strong desire for social justice, fairness, compassion, equality for all people, and peace. So I am deeply troubled that the religious leaders of this country seem so content to allow politicians to abuse the name of their God in the pursuit of material and personal success, that there isn’t a stronger backlash by religious communities against the Republican tactics of stirring up hatred and fear among their base in order to score dubious political points. I am deeply troubled that good Christians in this country stay silent while people at a Palin rally urge violence upon Obama, that they stay silent when Republicans put out patently racist material in their quest for power, or when our leaders lie, time and time again, to the American people (remember that bit in the 10 Commandments about not bearing false witness? Yes, I’m talking to you Senator McCain). I am deeply troubled when my own relatives smile away or laugh off or simply ignore the virulently anti-Christian behavior of Republicans and yet attempt to preach to me about “being saved.”

Actually, you know what? I’m more than deeply troubled. I am angry. I am angry at the hypocrisy that lies at the heart of the Republican Party in general and the McCain/Palin campaign in specific; angry at all those people who claim to follow Christ’s teachings but who pick and choose the parts of the Bible that they want to support; and I am angry at those followers of Christ who have the audacity to claim some kind of moral high ground over non-believers when they refuse to stand up or speak out against the lies and corruption and injustices that have become part and parcel of our political and government systems. While they may not always say it aloud, many religious people believe that they are better than non-believers or those from other religions. So when they act vicious and when they allow violence and corruption to grow in the name of their God, I see their failures as deeply hypocritical. Christianity (and other religions, I just happen to be most familiar with this one), is supposed to be based on a person’s actions and not just what they say. Just because someone says they believe in God, or that they are Christian, or even that they are a moral and ethical person, does not make it so. Actions, as the saying goes, speak louder than words. As your own God says:

“Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven will enter. “Many will say to Me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name cast out demons, and in Your name perform many miracles?’ “And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; DEPART FROM ME, YOU WHO PRACTICE LAWLESSNESS.’ (http://biblebrowser.com/matthew/7-16.htm)

Claiming that you believe in a religion does not ensure that you actually follow the teachings of that religion, nor does it ensure that you are anywhere close to being a moral or ethical person. Talking religion or morals or ethics means nothing if you do not act appropriately.

Look, I’m not saying that every Republican in the country is a hypocrite. Far from it. I am not a fan of the Democratic party as a whole. If you look at the actions of both Republican and Democratic parties, you will find many of our so-called “leaders,” are saying one thing and doing another. However, at this point in time, the Republican Party is urging violence, is engaged in flat-out lying about their opponents, is attempting to rig elections, and is repeatedly engaging in actions that are not only un-Christian, but that are deeply unethical. I keep hearing lots of blather about God and Country, but I challenge anyone to show me evidence that the GOP is paying the slightest attention to the teachings of Christ or what is best for America. Certainly, they are invoking God and Country as ways to prophesize, to “cast out demons,” and to pretend that they will “perform many miracles,” but in instance after instance, their actions are lawless, hypocritical, and un-democratic.

If a godless heathen can attempt to live a moral life, I would expect all you good Christians to start acting like you have bothered to read your religious texts and are at least attempting to live up to your Messiah’s words such as:

“You have heard the law that says, ‘Love your neighbor’ and hate your enemy. But I say, love your enemies! Pray for those who persecute you! In that way, you will be acting as true children of your Father in heaven. For he gives his sunlight to both the evil and the good, and he sends rain on the just and the unjust alike. If you love only those who love you, what reward is there for that? Even corrupt tax collectors do that much. If you are kind only to your friends, how are you different from anyone else? Even pagans do that. (Link)

“Do to others whatever you would like them to do to you. This is the essence of all that is taught in the law and the prophets.” (Link)

“You have heard that it was said, ‘An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth.’ But I say to you, do not resist an evil person; but whoever slaps you on your right cheek, turn the other to him also. If anyone wants to sue you and take your shirt, let him have your coat also. Whoever forces you to go one mile, go with him two. Give to him who asks of you, and do not turn away from him who wants to borrow from you.” (Link)

“When you pray, you are not to be like the hypocrites; for they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and on the street corners so that they may be seen by men. Truly I say to you, they have their reward in full. But you, when you pray, go into your inner room, close your door and pray to your Father who is in secret, and your Father who sees what is done in secret will reward you.” (Link)

“You cannot serve God and wealth.” (Link)

Every single one of us can be a better person. Every single one of us makes mistakes, treats others poorly from time to time, hurts people, and takes the easy way out. Each of us has been selfish, hypocritical, and cruel. Our moral standing in the world comes from how we take those moments of failure and turn them into lessons for ourselves and then how we act on those lessons in our daily lives.

Calling for Obama’s “death” is neither moral nor Christian. Calling Obama a baby-killer is neither moral nor Christian. Hating people who happen to vote differently than you is neither moral nor Christian.

You think of yourself as a moral person? You call yourself a Christian?

Start acting like one.

I’m taking a break from the blog for the month of October. I don’t have a particularly compelling reason, it was just something that came to me when I was contemplating my next entry. Considering I’m approaching 500 entries and have been maintaining LtL, with a decent amount of regularity for a personal blog, for almost three years, I figure a month off won’t kill me or lose me what few regular readers I might have.

My thanks to all of you who take the time to read my blog and I’ll have new thoughts, new ideas, and new words for you in about a month.

I am killing some time before I can meet Jeff in Dallas, so I came by Waco Lake to hang out for a couple of hours and do some reading or just chill in a quiet spot. It’s very quiet here and I’m enjoying listening to acorns fall and fish jump.

Tomorrow I am leaving Las Cruces and heading up to Roswell, NM. Considering my love of science fiction and interest in space and aliens and conspiracies, it seemed a shame to leave NM without visiting, even though I know it will be cheesy and tourist-y. Still, it should be fun. After I spend a couple of hours there, I will be camping at the Bottomless Lakes State Park for at least one night, but very possibly two nights. I am really looking forward to the quiet and the outdoors and the lack of internet and distractions. I expect to take some pics, do a bit of hiking around the lakes, finish Anethem and do some of my own writing. After that I’ll be going over to Texas, definitely hitting Dallas, possibly hitting Austin as well to visit an old high school friend. Then to Maryland to visit Lightly Organized Chaos for a day or two as well as a few other friends. Then I’ll get my ass up to Rhode Island and start looking for work, a place to live, some creative challenges and begin starting my business.

Richard Wright, the keyboardist whose somber, monumental sounds were at the core of Pink Floyd’s art-rock that has sold millions and millions of albums, died Monday in London, where he had lived. He was 65.

[From Richard Wright, Member of Pink Floyd, Dies at 65 - Obituary (Obit) - NYTimes.com]

In this political season of lies, lies and more lies, of idiots and incompetents, of selfishness and greed, and of the basest human instincts, it’s nice to be occasionally reminded that our species can be pretty amazingly smart and clever sometimes. I mean, we have figured out how to find specific molecules floating around in space 700 lightyears away.

A team of scientists led by researchers from the Instituto Astrofísica de Canarias (IAC) has succeeded in identifying naphthalene, one of the most complex molecules yet discovered in the interstellar medium. The detection of this molecule suggests that a large number of the key components in prebiotic terrestrial chemistry could have been present in the interstellar matter from which the Solar System was formed.

IAC researchers Susana Iglesias Groth, Arturo Manchado and Aníbal García, in collaboration with Jonay González (Paris Observatory) and David Lambert (University of Texas) have just published these results in Astrophysical Journal Letters.
The naphthalene was discovered in a star formation region in the constellation Perseus, in the direction of the star Cernis 52. “We have detected the presence of the naphthalene cation in a cloud of interstellar matter located 700 lightyears from the Earth”, says IAC researcher Susana Iglesias Groth. The spectral bands found in this constellation coincide with laboratory measurements of the naphthalene cation.

[From Interstellar Space Molecules That Help Form Basic Life Structures Identified]

That’s damn cool if you ask me.

I’m sure that later today I’ll read something that makes me feel rather ill-disposed toward our species, but for now, I think about the fact that we are exploring the universe and taking pictures like this:

and this

and this

and I can’t help but smile and be amazed that I am human and alive and part of an incredible universe that is being discovered by a darn clever and remarkable species.

I’m currently about halfway through Stephenson’s latest book and it is an amazing, rich, thought-provoking, deeply intellectual, and engrossingly emotional novel. The kind of novel that you want to live in for a good long while. Even though I have over 400 pages to go, I’m already a bit sad that it will end in such a short time! With all the hype and build up focusing on the semantics of the world, I was afraid it would be a bit like Clockwork Orange, creating a rich and varied world but with the language being a pretty high barrier to entry into that world. However, Anathem is nothing of the sort. Yes there are words and cultural signifiers that are alien and I’m glad that he included a lexicon of words so you can look up key terms, but as a whole, the book is remarkably accessible. While there are some brain-twisting sections (especially if you aren’t used to thinking about geometric or logic problems), they are so integral to the story and the characters that they are no more off-putting than a description of a room or a character’s emotional state. Stephenson is a master at incorporating lessons—on the creation of money (among many other things) in his Baroque Cycle, on cryptography in Cryptonomicon, or on geometry and metaphysics here—into his novels without being pedantic or boring.

Anathem is quickly becoming one of my favorite science fiction novels of all time and I can’t recommend it enough for anyone who likes their novels rich with ideas and intrigue and characters that feel like old friend, or who likes their world-making detailed, internally consistent. This is a book that will offer you a new world and make you look at ours in a new way.

“Burn After Reading [Theatrical Release]” (Focus Features)

I have to admit that I’ve missed the last several films by the Coen brothers, but am sure glad I saw this one. There is something very relaxed about this movie. Not so much in the content, but in the execution of the movie. I don’t mean relaxed in a lazy way, but relaxed in the way that a gymnast can make the most complex routine look effortless. The script is tight, nearly pitch perfect and treats the audience to one of the best comedy of errors made this decade: perfectly balancing the laughs with a dark undercurrent of tragic ridiculousness. In addition, the characters all zig toward stereotypes but then zag into complexity. Well, almost all of them. Of the main characters, Tilda Swinton’s never quite makes that zag, which is a shame because she’s an incredible actor. The actors, even Swinton (given her character’s limitations), are at the top of their game. Even the minor characters are invested with a fullness that I usually associate with British films more than most American ones.

One of my pet peeves about movies in general, is that characters often seem to come from some never-never land where they have never watched movies or television or read spy novels or romance novels or science fiction novels or . . . you get my point. Most characters in movies don’t carry around the models of reality that we all carry around in our heads. All those books and movies and popular musics and television shows that tell us the world is like this and people are like that. These modesl have an impact on how we behave. Not only on how we behave, but how we actually see the world. The characters in Burn After Reading seem to be making their lives up as they go, and are doing so in ways that reflect a whole set of mental models that include how one might act in a movie or on television. Don’t misunderstand, the movie is not a collection of post-modern references and the character’s never mention movies or tv shows. Instead, the Coen brothers present us with characters whose actions make sense only if they have been raised on a steady diet of popular media.

While I’m sure that Brad Pitt will get a lot of attention for his performance because he is so damn good at playing silly-funny and does it so rarely, and Frances McDormand is as wonderfully delightful as usual, for my money, George Clooney’s performance is the richest and most nuanced of the film. He’s not a very likable guy, but he undergoes a rather profound journey. In fact, his story is almost too serious at times in comparison to the overall tone of the movie. Almost. In the hands of a less accomplished actor, or less accomplished writers and directors, his character might have upset the balance and tone. In the hands of Clooney and the Coens, however, it all just works.

This is a movie that I look forward to watching again and is well worth seeing in the theater.

“Systems/Layers” (Rachel’s)

Along with the Clogs, the Rachel’s are one of my new favorite bands. Lately I’ve been listening to a lot more instrumental music and finding myself drawn to the images and emotions that I can find through music without words. There is a freedom of interpretation to programmatic music and the Rachel’s are evocative and full of humor, intrigue and suspense. I get images of foggy mornings, looking out on a winter scene through a window fogged with breath, a dark-haired woman smiling sadly. And that’s just one song listened to once. Every time I listen I see different images, feel different emotions.

Here is one of their songs from Systems/Layers set to some archival film:

Check out their site and see if you can help.

In the aftermath of Hurricane Ike, the Houston Food Bank needs your support to help disaster victims. We need donations of money, food, and volunteer time.

The Houston Food Bank is working hard to provide relief to families and individuals who are suffering as a result of the hurricane. We are supplying food and other necessities to our partner agencies and to temporary shelters.

To keep up with the growing need for food, we must obtain funds to purchase truckloads of urgently needed, high-demand items

[From Houston Food Bank ]