“The Sink and the Mirror” illustrated
Related to Paul F. Thompkins’ “The Sink and The Mirror” routine, a numbingly extensive montage of mirror scare scenes.
Archive for February, 2010
Fetal critters
Some extraordinary images from the BBC series Animals in the Womb. Very literal title, that.
Slow Media Diet findings
I expected a binge to follow the conclusion of the Slow Media Diet, but it never came. My habits actually haven’t changed much since it ended. I now keep tabs on a few sites related to technical videomaking stuff, like Jem Shofield’s excellent The C47, and I’ve dropped in at Daring Fireball and The AV Club a few times, but mostly I stick to books and magazines.
(Speaking of books, I highly recommend the gossipy and addictive Game Change, an insider account of the ’08 election campaigns. I’m now digging into Jaron Lanier’s You Are Not a Gadget.)
My life has changed much more than I thought it would. My mind is more peaceful, I have a more nutritious media diet and my body appreciates spending less time hunched in front of a laptop. We’ll see if I slip back into old habits, but for the foreseeable future my medium of choice is words on paper.
Alright, that’s it’s for that topic for a while. I’m currently finishing a little paid video gig and working on a reinvention of the Goodie Bag style. Stay tuned for more on these.
Slow Media Diet: Immediate reflections
It’s February 1st and that means I’ve finished the Slow Media Diet. Oh, and I’m another year older. Shit.
Anyway, I’m intact. The Slow Media Diet wasn’t torture and though I bent and stretched the rules here and there, I mostly stuck to the plan. I never touched RSS feeds, barely looked at the web and emailing was kept to a minimum.
Here’s some immediate thoughts; I’ll expand on these on the weekend after I’ve had a bit of time to process.
- I doubt the web will ever regain its former stature in my life. I’ll certainly resume reading my favorite sites, but I’ll also be doing an aggressive pruning. My intellectual life has been richer and more fun without the web.
- I’ll probably unplug from Twitter. Dealing in teeny bits of info is just not for me. And besides, I don’t think I ever really got it.
- My mind can certainly veer out of control without the influence of fast media. Speed is in our culture and also might be an innate tendency.
So was the Slow Media Diet worth it? Absolutely. I feel refreshed and rebalanced just like I thought I would.
But if you’re considering undertaking this experiment for yourself… two weeks is probably plenty.
