Showing posts with label Writing. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Writing. Show all posts

Wednesday, April 15, 2009

Long Now Foundation, Time and a Book

I read the book Anathem by Neal Stephenson awhile back. It's long, very long at over 900 pages. Once I got a handle of the tweaked language he was using I found myself falling into the book and his writing style. I loved the story and concept of living in a "Mathic world" where one could devote their life to the study of math and philosophy. And I thought that would be the end of it, but then here's where fiction meets reality...

People here on Earth are actually doing and thinking about stuff like this. They have founded an organization to ponder life with long-term thinking in mind. Here's a piece of the real clock design being built in a remote area of Eastern Nevada. It is based upon the designs mentioned in the fictional world of the aforementioned book.



So I mentioned that there is an organization founded upon the principle of long-term thinking and its name is the Long Now Project. Much of what the book discusses is being thought about for this group and I think that's pretty cool. Reality meet Fiction meets Reality!

I just happen to have been interested in this artist Brian Eno for MANY years now and have followed his music, seen some of his art exhibits and enjoyed much of what he does. He has worked with U2, David Bowie and many music artists over the years. And not to my surprise he's involved in this foundation too. How weird is it when all these different pieces of one's life (some even fictional) meet together as one?

Tuesday, April 14, 2009

The Age of Composition

I don't think I can add much insight to this post by Jeff Utretch. If you have time read both his post and the NCTE article that is linked there/here. I think they both hit the target with what we're talking about at Euclid with writing, netbooks and our plans for 6th grade LA in the fall. BULLSEYE

We can talk about it more if you like, but it seems to combine where I think our vision is taking us WITH what we value at Euclid.



I love the notion of "The Age of Composition" in the 21st Century. It feels like a renaissance is taking place in our lifetime. Jump on board and enjoy the ride! I think this is going to be fun...

[Okay, so I did add a little]...