The Moonlighting Student

To Be Parallel

May 13th, 2009 9:43 pm —  15 views

sailing3A lot has happened since I last tapped my thoughts to the world and the more days that pass the harder it has been to find what to say. Not to mention picking a picture. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not throwing in the towel or anything. It’s curious to me how Twitter and Facebook have supplemented whatever social itch I was scratching by blogging.

I recognize the importance of working to articulate ideas. I recognize the effort it takes. People who write novels are to be revered. So true is the “every word is a drop of blood.” It’s not easy. Circumstance may dictate the message, but the tone and timbre are unique to the person tapping the keyboard.

Within the last month I finished my 6th semester of graduate school (two more to go)1. I received an A and an A- in the two classes I took. I flew to Fort Worth, Texas for a three day technology summit with my peers from all around the world. I visited my mother, saw my brother, went to Mackinaw Island, and bought a new computer. This one that I’m typing on right now. I switched to my old keyboard because the new teeny Mac keyboard was distracting and not fitting with my chair and setup.

Tomorrow is my first round for this summer’s golf season. I missed last week because of the Texas trip, but I’m looking forward to hitting the links tomorrow. A silly game, but a game not so bad.

I still puzzle over the differences between those that “get” Twitter and those that don’t. The division is obvious, but the realization distinct. Granted, this applies to a certain, perhaps limited, networked audience, but within that audience, where is your attention? Can it be distributed? How distributed? Humans and computers interacting, where are the limits?

To be parallel is to never converge or diverge. To always be perfectly aligned with something. With so many things having different alignment, finding that parallel among such diversity is the problem to solve.

Image: These guys were racing their remote control sailboats in a pond near the entrance to an industrial park on a road toward where I live. I happen to have my camera handy and pulled over to take this picture from a distance.

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  1. If all goes according to plan I’ll graduate next spring. [↩]

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2 Comments 

Comments

2 Responses to “To Be Parallel”

  1. Dawn on May 15th, 2009 10:51 am

    Only two more semesters to go! Amazing! I have missed your blog. I was thinking last week that normally you’d be telling us about your trip and the island and all…

    Enjoy the summer! It’s so short!

  2. Spike on May 15th, 2009 10:58 am

    Thanks for the encouragement Dawn.

    It’s sometimes easy to convince oneself that you’re blogging for others. I need to keep in mind that blogging is more than that.

    Summers are short. Perhaps that’s why they can be so sweet.

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