Mark Versus

This is not a comment on the racial implications of Diane Abbott’s ‘divide and rule’ tweet. A lot of other people seem to be doing that and their comments are invariably agenda-ridden. What has infuriated me about this business is the business of context. As a clumsy example, the next, single sentence paragraph will be absurd, untrue and entirely contrary to my beliefs.

I hate black people and think they should all be shot.

If you wanted to quote only that sentence from this post you could. And the shallow, reactionary nature a lot of the internet would let that be the only thing they would take in on the subject.,

If the tweet is part of a wider conversation (as it is claimed) it should of course be taken a such. The current towards political point-scoring and calls for resignation, as opposed to addressing and having a (God-forbid contentious) debate on the issue is a time-wasting exercise that undermines the concept of government at its root. Those who deal in it should be ashamed of themselves, particularly when they themselves are in government. Your job is not to get/stay elected. Your job is to represent yourselves and the people having been so elected.

I hope that in the fullness of time those guilty of such clumsy manipulation will be outed as idiots before the impact of their idiocy is felt.

There are many people comfortable in saying that ‘Yes, Abbott should have been more judicious and not posted it in the first place.”. This is also a waste of time and serves only to blur both the original idea being expressed and the issue of the fuss that follows. It is not the responsibility of the writer, or poster or whomever to make sure that every single sentence, or post or tweet stand alone as an innocuous summary of the full argument being made. All they need be responsible for is the clarity of the argument and their own confidence to stand behind it. It is the responsibility of the reader and the subsequent user for how they choose to use it. If they misunderstand the point or, worse, are happy to corrupt the point then they should be judged.

The story does bring to mind the question of whether there is a separate requirement to explicitly direct a reader to context on Twitter. It takes place in conversations on Twitter in the form of the @ reply. Those tweets are linked and can be viewed as a thread. The # implies topic but is not entirely effective in ensuring context between connected tweets (though it could and should). Perhaps it is worth ensuring that a tweet that is a direct continuation of a former or part of a longer conversation begins or ends with ellipsis. That way there could be no doubt that the tweet cannot and should not be read without the former or the latter.

That way we can get down to the important business of being properly racist*. I welcome comments on this post.

*There used to be a punctuation mark denoting sarcasm. For now, take this footnote as the context.

This is me saying publicly that I have a job ahead of me.

I have a fair amount of my shit to get together. And it’s about time too.

Einstein rattled on about doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results being the definition of insanity. Like he didn’t have better things to think about. He may have been right. Then again, he may not have considered the capacity for the observer to change.

So I shall continue repeating myself. And lets see what happens.

I have been trying to include Evernote in my note-taking effectively across all platforms.  The paper based notes were always the weakest link.

With a bit of time free I have knocked up a printable that I can use to re-purpose scrap paper into an Evernotepad that will hopefully solve a few of my issues, namely:-

1. Remembering to snap. Having a custom notepad will remind me to photograph and upload the notes either as I take them or as I dispose of the paper.
2. Keeping it neat. As much as I try to keep them tidy my notes rarely are. The Evernotepad provides a boundary that matches the aspect ratio of my phone camera and a tags box that I can use to ensure that at least key words are legible.

It makes good use of wasted paper and I am hoping it will fit in easily with my processes and I will try and comment to let people know.

In the meantime, if it is useful to anyone, here it is –  Evernotepad.

If there is anything else out there similar to this (perhaps that caters to different paper sizes and phone cameras) let me know and I will update the post with links.

I have a new favourite game. Here are the instructions:-

1. Get the song An Ending (Ascent) by Brian Eno and load it on to your media player of choice.
2. Head out to a public place. Like a park or a train station.
3. Find  a spot with a good view of the general public going about their business.
4. Stick your headphones.
5. Press play.
6. Try and work out the plot of the film that this scene is the end of.

That’s all there is to it.  The ambient Eno magic of this song is such that no matter what surrounds you it is easy to imagine that the everyday goings on of he people in your field of vision are the protagonists in some drama. Or maybe they are just the public being shown to represent the smallness of the lives of our stars in among the human race And the best part is the plots will never be the same.

The piece is written to score a movie. The piece is so liquid that it will take the form of its container. That is to say it will morph from happy ending to sad purely by what surrounds it, and how you are feeling at the time.

I started playing this game as a tease, because I imagined it this piece of music as one of those that makes it onto the bed of numerous programs at an emotionally charged moment (a la Hoppipolla, grumble grumble), but it’s fun. If you go with it it can be quite affecting. All in the name of fun.

And of course the films are always masterpieces

An Ending (Ascent) (on Youtube)
Wikipedia entry for where the song is used in other media

Is it possible to say that my biggest problem right now is an excess of options without sounding like an arsehole? Not really. Why? Because in analysis this is a shallow and worthless understanding of the concept of a problem.

I have been saying this to myself and other people for sometime now and each time I have to attach a disclaimer, an apology for sounding like an arsehole. It has taken me this time to realise that I had stopped exploring my circumstance having struck upon a convenient response that I could reel off and which, in doing so, I could take no blame for. After all, I had provided myself with a condition the cause of which was all these other people’s belief in my abilities and potential. Very flattering stuff. No wonder I was dragging it around with me.

I need to go deeper. If I have a problem it is with decisions not options. We are presented with hundreds of options daily and we make calls on those options sometimes with little or no thought and sometimes it takes a bit longer. In each case the process is the same. We evaluate the potential outcome until we are happy we can move forward.

Here’s my problem.

Have I stopped evaluating the outcome? Or am I evaluating it ad infinitum? The decisions I need to make are big ones. They deserve a proper process. I don’t have that process yet (or anymore? I don’t remember it being an issue in the past). But when I do I need to run it in full and make a choice because right now I am boring myself to shit.

And I know I can tolerate my nonsense a hell of a lot longer than most others can so I should probably apologise or STFU.