Thursday, September 11, 2008

Various

First, a small rant. I went to WhiteBlaze.net, the hiking message board site, and scanned the topics being discuss as I usually do. Someone (who shall remain nameless, although he seems to think his purpose in life is to point out how stupid the rest of us are) said it is 9/11, did no one remember? Some others dutifully started talking about where they were and how it affected them when the buildings went down and neighbors/friends died. That part was interesting. However, apparently not enough folks posted, because there was a refrain in the thread about how it seemed that not many really cared. As if, only by posting on their thread on that message board could someone show any patriotism or remembrance. I read the thread. Yes, I knew what day it was and what happened 7 years ago. I didn't post, though, so I evidently didn't 'care'. Sigh. Guess I'm not one of the cool kids yet again.

Now, for something I read that I found kind of neat. I read various blogs on many different subjects. Sometimes I don't follow all the reasonings through lack of knowledge in that area or lack of caring (politics comes to mind here), but I do find individuals expressing themselves about something they care about usually has something interesting in there somewhere. Tonight I was wondering among some of the blogs that I bookmarked and haven't followed after first finding them. In one blog that has environmental issues as it's theme was a reference to a study done on "structures of participation". The study was done in an art museum, and showed the difference between having information about an exhibit either in text on a wall, audio in private headphones, or delivered via an activated loudspeaker increased or decreased interaction between individuals viewing the exhibit. The first two methods fostered little to no interaction among individuals in front of the exhibit, the last via the loudspeaker fostered longer interactions as the number of people listening increased. I like it that someone cares enough to worry about this type of thing. Actually design an interactive situation to increase involvement among the people involved. What a concept.

On a related note, I REALLY, REALLY need to get back into something, or some things, that make me think, take me beyond my day to day life. This is a really bad week at work. Gotta find something to light my fire mentally to remind me in an on-going manner that the world is truly big, awesome, interesting, and a generally cool place to hang out.

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