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Showing posts from October, 2015

Domains and Such

One of the first blogs I launched was this little Wordpress hosted thing: Questionsall.WordPress.Com . About a year ago, after an extended period of neglect, I brushed off the site and made it the center for my poetics. It's been growing nicely ever since. I'm rather proud of it, and want to take this project much more seriously. I hadn't done much with it besides the basic design from ages past, so I decided to brush up things a bit. Now, though, I want to update the domain, however, I'm not sure what to choose. I own CarlSetzer.net and could just port that over. Or I could try something like PoetsJourney or things along that line. I'm not sure what I like best yet. So, if you have any suggestions, leave me a comment or send me a tweet or fire up a smoke-signal or.... Your opinion matters and I'd love to hear from you. Hmmm...maybe I'll build a poll. Hmm....

Time Management and Some Advice From Om Malik

Lately, I've been thinking about how heavily I use social media. As it's part of my function for the C&K Team, I easily can spend hours each day wrapper up in it. Lately, I've noticed I'm slipping on things I value, the most obvious one writing. The quality of my writing has slipped, as my focus has been on getting content out, not on writing the best stuff I can, on magnifying my quality. Om Malik posted this recently: Non-Social . He's backing away from high-level engagement upon all the social media platforms. Going so far as deleting the apps from his devices, so I assume that means he's only using Twitter/Facebook writ-large from laptops/desktops. I don't know if I'm ready to go that far (yes, he's only going dark for a week, but still...) but I feel that backing off from social stuff will give me more time to focus. I've had several folks requesting me finish some of the books I've had on the back-burner. With NaNoWriMo  (Nation

Expert saber sparring: Lee Smith vs Richard Marsden

I fenced while I lived in Astoria, eventually getting to work with saber. An amazing and wonderful weapon. Watching these two spar is a delight.

Other sites to find my writing

My foci have moved lately. If you're a fan of my poetry, this page is focused on that . I'm quite pleased with the results. Less than a year ago, I had no followers. Now, over 1,400. 'Tis very validating. My more general writing has been over here at NotJustSeattle . Over 2,200 subscribers since launch. Again, quite pleasing. So, come over to these sites and say "hi".

The positive focus

I strive to keep the positive focus. That's where I keep my compass pointed towards. Yet, it's too easy to get wrapped up in petty squabbles. The amount of energy sucked up by this amazes me. And it damages relationships, creating frictions and distrust. Others see your biases and believe you're seeing their view as lesser. Judging others tends to only damage relationships. Somehow, we need to engage each other's differences in ways that build and grow relationship, not further fracture our already divided society. Keeping our discussions centered upon respect and dignity is key. Also, avoiding rhetorical failures, these key logical fallacies will be crucial. Stay on point and avoid defensive responses. Remember that the goal isn't to "win", rather fund a way forward.

Discussion and collaboration

An element of my pastor's sermon this Sunday was interdependence. Our culture puts more emphasis on being right than on effectiveness. Today I witnessed several discussions which were focusing on one liners and zingers, not on dialog and engagement. There was no respect, no interest in the other side's opinion, except as something to pull apart and deride.  Out of all the elements, though, it's the disrespect that bothers me the most. American culture heavily values the individual, to the detriment of society. We have lost our valuation for interdependence, assuming we ever had that to begin with. All out culture's problems require us to work together. Our ability to collaborate will determine our species' survival. No pressure.

My word of the day: multipotentialite

For most of my adult life, I've felt pulled to choose a specialty. And I've tried, dozens, maybe hundreds of times. As each time has resulted in failure, I realized, some time ago, that my varied and rich perspective is a valuable thing. Oddly, I never really considered my multi-faceted focus to be a good thing, just that good things had come from this. I admired the great work done by the specialists and really only saw myself supporting that work. Not that I had a creative and powerful perspective to add. However, after this TEDTalk, I see otherwise. Ms. Warnick talks of multipotentialites, people with a variety of interests and passions. These people work those into skills. Something richer than simply generalists supporting the more valuable specialists. People whose brains work like mine. And, most importantly (to me at least) that this is good. That we have a great deal to offer the world. Considering the multi-faceted issues that our world faces, we have a particularly