Leveraged Intelligence

I Have a Blog Problem

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Noys

In 1955, Isaac Asimov wrote The End of Eternity.  In it, the main character, Harlan, works for a group called Eternity, that has discovered a temporal field allowing travel between the centuries.  Initially, this group only works trade between the different peoples of different times, but soon decides to “help” mankind’s progress by working to change events to aid humanity’s progress.

The theory is kind of like this: if you prevent a Hitler from coming to power or you stop Lee Harvey Oswald from entering the School Book Depository in Dallas, doesn’t this further the cause of mankind?

Well, another comes into the picture, a woman that Harlan falls in love with named Noys Lambent.  The Reality Changes that are ordered by Eternity and performed by Harlan lead neither to pleasant surprises nor terrible disasters.  In fact, history tends to compensate for the changes made and put itself back on its original course.  Harlan prefers the permanent and stable conditions Eternity advocates and together they represent certainty. In contrast to Eternity and Harlan, Noys’s opinion is that everything happens for the best whether good or bad. Tinkering with the past will prevent mankind from development and creative inventions, she wants humanity to be able to make its own choices, learn from them and try again. Noys maintains that it is the uncertainty in humanity’s innovation that will bring people to the stars.

Roger Zelazny had another way of dealing with this in his Amber series of novels, a series in which the people of Amber are somewhat like the gods of Olympus and they are the keepers of the Pattern that is the essential template of ordered reality.  At the opposite extreme is the world of Chaos, in which reality is ever shifting and impermanent – and somewhat magical.

We always face precisely the same tension in life.  Both structure and rambunctious spontaneity have their places and the key is harnessing one and freeing the other.  That is somewhat the way this blog has evolved with focused ideas, topics and comments mixed with spontaneous playful chaos.  But, readers I am interested to know what YOU see.  What do you value?

An Explicit Code of Conduct

Christmas Day marked the one-year anniversary of this blog.  It has had its positives as well as its negatives.  The positives came in the posts themselves, particularly in those shared by the Loose Bloggers Consortium, a creative, caring group all quite sincere and thoughtful in their offerings.  The negatives came in the form of exchanges that were hurtful and damaging to others.  I do not count the day of around 140 comments on one entry to be a plus.  I much prefer far fewer comments that are thoughtful and any challenges made being made to ideas and not individuals.

As with all young, creative endeavors, the course is corrected and develops as the need arises.  It is my desire that it be as unrestrictive as possible and still maintain a proper, often playful, often sincerely serious decorum.  I take the contents and interactions on this blog quite seriously – even when I am taking them lightly, though that seems like a contradiction.  For some blogs, the statements of the posts are the key, but here the conversations generated are the key.  My favorite mode is to serve somewhat like the Catcher in the Rye, letting the children romp in the rye while I keep them from stumbling over the cliff.

Tim O’Reilly developed, along with a task force, a Code of Conduct that I found appropriate to blogging.  I am explicitly using it now and placing it formally on this blog, a link to it always available as a page on the left side which you can click and review.  It is part of that annual refocusing we make as we move into the new year – and in this case new decade.  What I am doing is erecting a fence along the cliff face so the play in the rye can be even more freely enjoyed.

Also, I will be more circumspect in my play with you.  You deserve no less.  I enjoy gleeful roughhousing.  But, it does not work well when the blog is my own and some do not understand my playful intent.  My posts will speak for themselves and I encourage you to play hard around them.  My responses will be gentle for rough, though, because I have found through a series of recent stinging rebukes from a friend that my personal sense of humor does not always play well in Peoria.

Of course … that doesn’t mean that my posts themselves may not have an edge!  They will not be aimed at any reading membership, therefore I feel no constraint there.  Otherwise, how could I initiate play in the first place???  I will post without apology.

So, play on!!

Addendum hot off the presses: After the first few comments on this post, I am changing my stance right back to the way it was.  Were this a location where you were required to stay, that would be one thing.  But, since you are free to go where you wish, then you can like it here or simply vote with your feet and leave.  I am going to be me all the way.

Oh, do me a favor.  On the way out, it is not a requirement that you take a shot at me, passive-aggressive or otherwise, LOL.  But, if you’ve gotta, I guess you’ve gotta.

I Get Paid by the Word, You Know …

That’s alright, I’ll take the thousand and move on.

Now you know why I always include pictures in my Posts!  Considering the 2,000 for the picture – you see, it is a picture within a picture, so I get 1,000 for each – and the title, counting the elipsis and counting the dashes in this piece and counting contractions as two words, I have a total of 2,084 …

Business is picking up!