Carl Setzer

Exploring sunlight, movement, Daytime beckons, demands play, Life outside, life well lived.

Wil Wheaton stated a fantastic idea in the last Radio Free Burrito : do something creative everyday for 31 days. Feeling withered creatively, this seems an excellent course of action. Earlier (this morning), I broke out my Moleskine , grabbed one of my old poetry texts and determined to write from the first form that appeared before me. First on the page was the tanka, cousin to the haiku. &nbsp&nbspCollective mind &nbsp&nbspGrowing within our hands, bright &nbsp&nbspBlast of knowledge, linked &nbsp&nbspMassive data together &nbsp&nbspKnowledge not equal wisdom. Shifting to haiku: &nbsp&nbspData, data, ow! &nbsp&nbspBurns my brain, searing knowledge &nbsp&nbspNot understanding Lastly, and most challenging, was limerick. Not being in the most humor-centric of moods, I thought that, perhaps, limerick doesn’t need to be funny. &nbsp&nbspSilliness, sunlight’s love, joyfully &nbsp&nbspExploring sta...

Twitter takes the idea of "executive summary" and refines it to the most diminutive. Twitter's beauty comes from the speed of data transfer, as well as connecting trust agents to incentivize readership. Its downside: sacrificing depth for speed. With the mass of data blasting down the Twitter pipes, headlines replace depth. Finding the valuable, the needle within the haystack stares at us. Thus the value of our followees. The people we choose to follow capture our priorities, our interests and passions. Filtering the grand thoroughfare in this way greatly expands what trade pubs were attempting to do, in the magazine era's heyday. And the internet's grabs array of knowledge becomes more manageable. Or more so.

Often, I wake ridiculously early, my mind racing with ideas. This moment the most creative of my day. I find this exciting and invigorating, yet exhausting. By early afternoon, my brain is ready to for a nap. Thank goodness for coffee!

I’m current re-reading “ Simpler Living Compassionate Life ”. Having lurked on my shelf for way too many years, some of my current questions called me back to this. Looking over some of the essays, it’s clear how much an influence this has had on my life. I wrote an essay, years ago, on “Enough”, and I see the early stirring of those notions here. The most recent essay I read, “Entering the Emptiness” ( Gerald May ), though, deeply challenged me. Most of the piece connects solidly with my years of zen practice. The notion of space, external and internal, as sacred, something to value speak clearly to me. Embracing the noise of the mind and letting the random echos simply be. These are all things I’ve heard as guidance. One piece, though, haunts me. Abandoning the quest for fulfillment. May labels, as myth, that “[i]if you are well adjusted, and if you are living your life properly, you will feel fulfilled, satisfied, content and serene”. This myth, I now see, lies deep within me. Also,...