Steal This Episode! (Just Skip The Ads) is the second episode in the inaugural season of my podcast, The Beerlander. You can find me on Google Podcasts and Spotify.
You can listen to the episode using this embedded player.
Below you will find contents (and linked resources) that I mention in this episode. Continue reading Beerlander 2021 01 – Steal This Episode!
What time is it?
Right now. What time is it?
Right then. What kind of clock did you view to check the time? Your watch? Your phone? A wall clock? Analog? Digital? Sundial?
Did you guess the time before checking for a definite answer? Why, or why not?
What is the date? Which calendar did you reference? Gregorian, Assyrian, Ptolemaic, Zoroastrian? Do you even know? Does it even matter?
How far back into your own past (and the pasts of others) must you (or anyone) reach to find relevance in this moment?
Will that moment we just shared (in an asynchronous author-reader sense, anyway) be relevant in the future? Is relevance relevant to you in this moment?
While it would be great to delve into multiple scales and perspectives of time right now, we just do not have time. There is too much else about time relevant to this concept of TimeTracks, including its own history and future, as well as that of its creator, your friendly author.
Listen: there is just enough time (and space) to give homage to what are typically considered the two primary contrasting viewpoints of time: the arrow of time (entropy, etc.) and the experience of time. Maybe there will be more time further along this collection of words to dig in a bit deeper, depending on how (un)stuck this essay becomes.
Where to begin with TimeTracks? Continue reading (Coming Unstuck In) TimeTracks
What is the tourism project?
Recently, I have conceptualized a new writing project that, for now, is intended to be an objective, research-driven essay about tourism and life in small- and medium-sized towns. I’d like to gather as many perspectives as possible. I’ve put together a brief survey for you to provide yours.
The survey won’t take you more than five minutes to complete.
Other than asking you for your general stance on tourism and the economy, the survey has a few basic questions to help steer the course of the project.
What is it like to live in a tourist town?
What is it like to work in a tourist town?
What is it like to raise kids in a tourist town?
What is it like to retire in a tourist town?
Please help me spread the word about this project, and please do share the link with folks you think would be interested in having their say. Here’s a QR code anyone can scan to access the survey on a smartphone.
Feel free to fill out the survey if you feel so inclined, and feel free to contact me directly or comment on this article if you’ve got questions about the project and my intentions.
Depending on the direction this project takes, there may be much more here than just the initial essay that gets published in a magazine or journal (and eventually on my blog). I hope it gets bigger. I’d like to move it toward a book about tourism, with in-depth examples and case studies from various municipalities around the United States, or perhaps even the world. We are also planning to see this site and take help from professional tour guides
Initially, though, I’m hoping to focus on municipalities in the western part of North Carolina, and the southwestern section of Virginia, since those are the areas that are most readily accessible to me from my home base in Glade Valley, North Carolina.
Here’s a printable PDF flyer you can download and share, and print then hang on a wall anywhere you’d like: community center, place of worship, town hall, school, coffee shop. Tourism Project Flyer
Finally, if you’re interested in collaborating on this project, I’m definitely interested in hearing from you. I’ll need some help conducting research and interviews for this project.
Thank you!
As I continue to travel the world—and spend more time exploring my own big backyard right here in North Carolina—I’ve come to realize that I can apply my academic training, professional experience, intelligence, and creative abilities in a combined effort over the next few decades to produce what I think and believe will be experiential documents worth consuming as materials for lifelong learning and understanding. I am conceptualizing an ongoing series of experiential documentation, taking appropriate form over time as ebooks, print books, magazines, interactive apps, websites, and perhaps even videos.
This concept first came to me when I was looking at a map of the United States and thinking about the difference between national parks and national monuments. Based on my personal experience onsite at various national monuments, coupled with my research and perusal of the maps of these monuments and the surrounding areas, I realized that I would love to commit to exploring and documenting a sense of place in each of these areas—demonstrating their importance as sacred spaces for maintaining the natural order of our relationship with the environment and all other species with which we share it.
So, to put a stake in the ground, I created a map of all the US National Monuments. (Yes, there is at least one that does not appear in the image.)
Inspired by my recent trip to Helsinki, which included a stay at the hostel on Suomenlinna, I decided to add UNESCO World Heritage sites to the map. I figured it would be interesting to see how many UNESCO sites in North America are within reasonable proximity to US National Monuments, thus allowing me to combine several locations into exploratory experiential documentation journeys of 1-3 months in duration.
Continue reading Creative Concepts: Ecological Experiential Documentation
When I drive solo along looooong stretches of remote roads, I see many things in my periphery and often forget them, especially when the musical selection that my in-car DJ (aka Yours Truly) has made is rather choice for the current terrain. I’ve been making a concerted effort to record my observations as they happen. This means that I also often tack on additional thoughts about whatever I’ve been rolling over in my head as the original observation-inducing roadside stimulus has occurred.
This can make for some interesting juxtapositions….just listen (and beware of a few possibly-not-work-friendly “cuss words”):
Please take the time to check out my book/photography Kickstarter project Winter South 2014 if you haven’t already, and please consider backing my project. Thanks!
Just watch:
It was pretty windy last night. Got a few nice shots when I hiked up Teutonia Peak this morning, and now I’m making my way to Flagstaff.
I’m staying in Lone Pine, California tonight. Getting up at the crack of dawn and heading into Death Valley tomorrow morning for a few days of camping and shooting. It looks like the weather will be cooperating. I’m also hoping to find a nice spot to finally shoot a video for my Kickstarter campaign: http://kck.st/1eEDQxl
Earlier today, I managed to get a decent shot on my phone from the Mono Lake vista point on US 395:
Notice anything? There’s hardly any snow anywhere!!! Not a good sign.
Yesterday’s workshop at AECT was a success! Participants from around the globe came to learn about using tablets to conduct cognitive labs for understanding how students learn with interactive tasks delivered in a digital tablet learning environment.
Here are some more photos from the event.
I’m happy to announce that my friend and colleague Dirk Ifenthaler will be visiting CSUMB to give a lecture/workshop combo next Thursday and Friday!
Here are the details:
This workshop involves tools for assessing learning and performance in complex, problem-solving domains. Various integrated tools will be discussed and demonstrated. Participants will have an opportunity to refine a research design and apply the tools in a research setting by conducting a mock experimental study. The tools elicit problem conceptualizations from subjects as annotated causal concept maps or in open text form and provide analysts with comparisons of two representations with regard to seven metrics.
Here’s a link to the full description (including specific tools to be used): http://tla.csumb.edu/workshops
