Sue Stonebender’s Neighborhood

Currency has flow, like a river sending water droplets down in a mass stream of rippling consciousness, capital has a way of moving between the obstructions to follow its destiny downstream. Some same it trickles up or down depending on your geography and magnetism -- I say any multitude of flows are possible when we take time to move with the forces at work.

Unicorntapestry

TSDIGS Drive In Sign


Originally uploaded by .inKenzo. evonne@amoration

Digital Storytelling Drive-In will include one minute videos and photo stories created by nonprofit organizations around the world. Help us award the winners in a special mixed reality party with dozens of organizational leaders learning to tell their stories together through new media tools. Special thanks to TechSoupGlobal for hosting and we'll announce the winners Wednesday night live in San Francisco and inworld.

Is it possible to be efficient as both a local and global creator?  Virtual vocations create an opportunity for international collaboration that is unparalleled -- have we learned to work efficiently together across boundaries?  

International Architecture

International Architecture

International Architecture

International Architecture

Pure_joy_by_Ferruti

I've just gotten off the phone (well, Skype, but it's pretty much the same thing) with The Amazing Jennifer Priest. Why is she so amazing? Because in the space of an hour, she brought me up from exhaustion to excitement; from depression to delight; from gnarly to gnostic! During our Skype call, she led me toward an epiphany, and it's put me on the path to something great.

Full disclosure: I may have Adult Attention Deficit Disorder (Adult ADD). All my life, I've had difficulty concentrating, been easily distracted, have never had a moment when snatches of songs weren't running through my mind, was extremely forgetful ... and these things have hurt me. Just as an example, Jennifer gave me a mutually agreed-upon task to help me pursue some of my goals. But two weeks have gone by, and I haven't been able to do them. Last night, I realized that my biggest obstacle is, in fact, my brain. It just doesn't work properly. So I asked Jennifer if we could spend today's session discussing ways to fix that.

We began talking about the different drugs that people with my problem take to alleviate their symptoms. But she said something that hit me like a bolt from the blue. I mentioned that I'm always recycling old song lyrics, great bits of writing from books I've read, things people say that I found particularly clever ... and yet I can't remember to do a simple thing like turn off the garden lights at night before I go to bed. Jennifer said that that's because experiencing pleasurable things lights up the part of the brain that helps me learn and remember things. Things that are onerous, like household chores, or doing taxes, or any of a thousand things, just don't stick with me; in fact, I tend to postpone them, or outright avoid them.

She likened it to sitting in a boring business meeting. You might start to twiddle your thumbs, or drum on the desk, or play with your cellphone -- anything you can do that will add just the tiniest bit of enjoyment to the proceedings. Because without that extra stimulus, you might as well not even be there.

And that concept struck such a deep chord with me, it literally woke me all the way up, and I got really excited. Do you understand how amazing it is to have a big piece of mystery suddenly come loose and fall away, like icebergs calving in the arctic seas? A huge part of my life suddenly made sense! All my life I've been told that I had to pay closer attention, to work harder, to have the right attitude. But it seems that some peculiarity of my brain has made that near-impossible ... and more than that: there's a way to fix it.

Now, I should say that as a whole, I've always had a certain reservation when it comes to drugs of any sort. I'm wary of their effects and side effects, I've seen their abuse lead to the loss of friends and family members ... they're a loaded topic for me. So to consider that I might gain some benefit from taking some kind of pharmaceutical was a huge step for me. But I'm doing it. I'm going to make a call soon to put me on the track to 1) Get myself diagnosed, and 2) To get the treatment I need.

You may be thinking "But it seems so obvious; you need drugs, you go get drugs." But the problem has always been my broken brain. I would always think to myself "Oh, I just need to do this", but 5 minutes later, and it's gone. There have been moments when I've nearly wept, or screamed in frustration at my inability to understand the simplest ideas, or remember the most common sense steps. In a lot of ways, my mind has been my biggest enemy my whole life.

But The Amazing Jennifer managed to turn that around, too. She said that even given that hurdle, that obstacle, what I have managed to accomplish is that much more laudable. Look how far I've come, even with a broken brain: I've managed to keep my First Job in this horrible economy, and am maintaining two secondary jobs at the same time, both of which involve the regular application of my thoughts. I've stuck with my difficult living situation, when others might have cut and run. I can honestly say that I'm thankful that I have my willpower in place, because without it, I might have given up long ago.

Just think what I'll be able to do when I fix my brain!

So there you have it: working with The Amazing Jennifer has been the smartest thing I've ever done. Sure, these steps were always there for me to figure out on my own, but that's the point: I never had. It's taken an outside voice to help me put it all in context, and help me understand why my life is the way it is, and what to do about it.

I'm going to get better, you just wait and see. I'm going to astonish you all.

Today I don't need a replacement
I'll tell them what the smile on my face meant
My heart going boom boom boom
Hey, I said
You can keep my things, they've come to take me home
-- "Solsbury Hill", Peter Gabriel

found at http://natewhitehill.com

Part of wisdom is knowing when to seek help. I don't claim any special store of knowledge apart from the common sort that arrives with age, but I do know when I need assistance.

I've come to a point in my life in which I feel overwhelmed by the very act of living. I'm working all the time -- I see my son off to preschool in the morning and I go to my First Job. I work at my Second and sometimes Third Jobs during my First Job, and then I come home to help take care of my son. Once he's off to sleep, I go back to working on my Second and Third jobs. I work until 2 or 3 AM, most days, and sleep (hopefully) until 5:45, when I have to get up to help my co-parent get up so she can get ready for her job. I go back to sleep until about 7:30, and start all over again.

I'm mired in the deepest debt of anyone I know, the result of years of poor decisions that have all come home to roost. Any one of my jobs could conceivably disappear tomorrow, and I have nothing concrete to fall back on. I have nothing in my savings, and no practical training in anything other than writing.

So I need help. I've needed help for quite a while now, and have been trying to tough it out, hoping it would get better.

Fortunately, I use Twitter. That's a phrase you don't often see in the media, but I've found Twitter to be an amazing resource for many things. I've made friends through Twitter, have found work through Twitter, and have expressed my humor, anger, fear, and hope through Twitter. And a few weeks ago, I found help through Twitter.

Jennifer Priest (http://www.jenniferpriest.com/) is a life coach. She's in the business of helping those who need help. She does this by telling you things that you may already know, but choose to ignore, or choose to avoid, for whatever reason. She makes complex issues plain. She sees clearly. She takes that journey of a thousand miles -- which feels unassailable -- and gets you to forget about all the steps it will take you to complete it, to focus instead upon the very first one.

Thanks to Jennifer, I have tasks. Concrete, simple, agreed-upon tasks with a deadline. These tasks are due by the end of the week, and I will accomplish them. Then Jennifer and I will talk, and she'll help me focus on the second step. Sooner or later, I'll come to the end of the thousand miles, and look forward to the next thousand -- but maybe by that point I won't need help anymore.

I'm going to keep this blog updated with my progress, in the hope that it will give me perspective. If I suffer setbacks, as I'm certain I will, you'll know about it. If I learn something important, I'll set it down here. And if, by the end of my journey, I've acquired wisdom, I'll share it with you.

And will this be
Our second chance
Our secret, better lives?
Adjusted freedom, somewhat less unsupervised?

-- "Where They Go Back To School But Get Depressed", The Loud Family

Join in the Celebration of the Launch of the EcoCommons in Second Life
Environmental nonprofits and their supporters host a grand opening celebration, Earth Day, Wed. April 22nd

(Come see my latest island for Nonprofit Commons!)

Wednesday, April 22nd, 11 AM PT/SLT, on the new EcoCommons island in Second Life: http://slurl.com/secondlife/ECO%20Commons/5/4/29

Ecocommonswelcome2

EcoCommons is a virtual location (sim) designed for environmental organizations in the 3D virtual world of Second Life. Developed by TechSoup’s Nonprofit Commons team in partnership with OneWorld.net and OneClimate Island in Second Life, EcoCommons provides a network for environmentally-focused nonprofits to promote awareness, community-building and environmental education efforts in the virtual world and beyond. Through EcoCommons and the Nonprofit Commons as a whole, environmental organizations may join this alliance to  increase impact. Members can host virtual meetings, lectures, and other events by tapping into a thriving, existing virtual community of early adopters and technologists. Individuals and organizations around the world can connect through EcoCommons, while also reducing their carbon footprint by eliminating the need to travel to a physical meeting place.

Launching on Earth Day, Wed. April 22nd, in the virtual world of Second Life, this interactive event will feature a keynote speech by Jacqueline Chenault, New Media Specialist U.S. House Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming http://globalwarming.house.gov, and will be broadcasted live from Second Life.

The launch event will include educational sessions and presentations, and is a part of the TechSoup Global GreenTech Initiative's month-long campaign: Telegreening Your Work , to educate social benefit organizations on how to save money and the environment by using technologies, such as Second Life, to work remotely and collaborate online.

Event details:

* The launch party event takes place Wed. April 22nd in Second Life, 11:00 am- 12PM PST (SLT), online in Second Life, and is hosted by TechSoup Global's GreenTech Initiative, Nonprofit Commons, and OneWorld/OneClimate.net
* Second Life activities will continue throughout the day and week as part of Earth Week Second Life: http://slearthweek.wordpress.com/

Schedule of speakers:

11 AM: TechSoup Global's GreenTech Initiative

11:15 AM: Jacqueline Chenault, New Media Specialist, U.S. House Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming http://globalwarming.house.gov

11:40: OneWorld/OneClimate.net

Noon-: Tours of the island and other The Nonprofit Commons islands and further Second Life activities throughout the week of Earth Day

About the Nonprofit Commons in Second Life
Nonprofit Commons consists of three virtual locations (sims), with a fourth underway. Housing over 80 social benefit organizations in virtual offices, and over 400 members who are not residnets, but still are community-volunteers, the Nonprofit Commons is managed by an entirely volunteer-run community of nonprofit employees, under the leadership of TechSoup Global: http://www.techsoup.org.

Nonprofit Commons was designed to lower the barriers of access to Second Life, to create a community of practice for nonprofits to explore and learn about the virtual world, and to investigate the many ways in which nonprofits might utilize this unique environment. Through this community, we provide free office space to qualifying groups, meet and network, create a cooperative learning environment and foster outreach, education, fund-raising, all in a virtual space. Our focus is on providing an accessible entry-point to Second Life and on creating a community of nonprofit organizations (NPOs) for effective collaboration and support. We believe that Second Life is a wonderful place not just to entertain, but also to educate, inspire, and work together to assist our fellow avatars (and the humans behind them). You do not have to be a resident of the Nonprofit Commons to get involved with our community. We welcome all who wish to join us as partners, collaborators or supporters.

Nonprofit Commons' first sim was donated by Anshe Chung Studios and the Nonprofit Commons 2nd sim was donated by TakingIT Global. The third Nonprofit Commons location, EcoCommons, was developed in partnership with OneWorld.net/OneClimate Island specifically for environmentally-oriented organizations. The Nonprofit Commons' fourth sim will be focused on health-related nonprofits, and will launch in conjunction with the NetSquared Confernece on May 27th, 2009.

Members of Nonprofit Commons meet each Friday at 8:30 PST/SLT at Plush Nonprofit Commons Ampitheater. Visitors are always welcome to join us in making a difference one pixel at a time.

For more information, please email Megan Keane (megan@techsoup.org) or Susan Tenby (susan@techsoup.org) or IM Penguin Kuhn or Glitteractica Cookie in-world.

Visit us online:

Nonprofit Commons Blog:http://www.nonprofitcommons.org and wiki: http://npsl.wikispaces.com

OneWorld/OneClimate.net: http://www.oneclimate.net

 TechSoup Global GreenTech Initiative: http://www.techsoup.org/greentech
  Telegreening Your Work Campaign: http://www.techsoup.org/greentech/travel/index.cfm

Click this link to listen to this blogpost!

Drunk dialing Ralph on the porcelain phone

O the wonders and joys of drink! The epicurean delight to be had in a precisely-concocted formula of alcohol! The gastronomic pleasure inherent in every chilled sip and swallow! It is a consummation I shall never know. For I, dear friends and enemies, am an Abstainer. A teetotaler. A Man What Does Not Drink The Booze. Why? I’m glad you didn’t ask!

My earliest memory of alcohol is being offered beer by my then-stepfather. I was 12 years old. I looked at it (urine-like). I smelled it (stenchy). I rolled it about the glass (noisome). I took a sip. And… have you ever… eaten rotten, festering cardboard that’s been sitting in the backpack of a wetbrain hobo, alternatingly soaked by DT sweats and dried by the heat of his self-righteous indignation at the state of the world?

Better than that beer. I recommend it for whenever you’re in a terrible hurry to vomit.

So my first experience was formative. My next attempt at alcohol consumption came when I was 16 years of age, at a New Year’s Eve party. I was handed a glass of champagne by a pretty girl, and when that happens to you, you drink. In fact, I was so smitten by her that I failed to realize until it was too late that my hormone-addled brain had decided it was okay to release a swarm of fire ants into my esophagus. I only gradually became aware of this when I registered the look of alarm on the sweet girl’s face, followed by the sound of someone strangling a dyspeptic moose, which turned out to be me. The inability to breathe soon followed, joined by an unpleasant buzzing sensation in my head that sounded and felt like the world’s tiniest jackhammer being wielded by the cutest damned bee you’ve ever seen, cursing at me in Esperanto.

Eventually the whole suite of impressions died down, and I was left with a warmth in my stomach that was jealous of its space, rebuffing my every attempt to put anything else in there that might help with my sudden feelings of confusion and nausea. When I was finally able to speak again, I saw that the girl in front of me looked worried. Still hoping that I could salvage some shred of dignity, and perhaps steal away with her to a less-populated area of the party for muchas smooches, I summoned up my last reserves of suaveitude and looked her in the eyes. “Smooth,” I croaked.

You can see a pattern here, I think. Some of you might be thinking, “Well, drinking, like smoking and perhaps serial killing, is something that you just have to keep doing until you get used to it.” You might be right. That which doesn’t kill you… leaves you debilitated and in a coma. Look, it’s not as though I don’t “get” the drinking thing. It looks like great fun to sample all these different flavors, and reap the relaxation and loss of inhibition that comes with inebriation. I mean, just looking at Drinks After Dark makes me really yearn for a new hobby. And I live in San Francisco, one of the great Foodie meccas of the world! If I can’t do my experimentation here, I can’t do it anywhere!

But sadly, my body just seems to find alcohol – in whatever strength – poisonous. I’ve tried, oh how I’ve tried! There was that one time a “friend” handed to me something that smelled JUST like a vanilla shake, a drink of which I’m enamoured. Of course he neglected to mention that it was alcoholic, which should have been obvious to me by the way that it conducted electricity and glowed with a fierce crimson light. But, you know, vanilla. You know? So I took a hearty swig. For the record, let me just say this:

I love gravity. I think it’s great the way it keeps me and all of my toys from floating into space. However, I’m not such a fan of it when it decides it’s time to force me to make out with the floor. Remember that old game “stop hitting yourself”? It’s like that, only with a lot more swearing. A LOT more.

Now, I’m not sure exactly why alcohol affects me the way it does. I suspect my mother had a run-in with an old Gypsy woman before I was born, causing her offspring to be cursed. Fortunately for me, the Gypsy was a little unclear with the stipulations of the curse when she said “Afflicted by spirits”. But, you know, it’s too late now, no do-overs in the world of Gypsy curses! Could be a lot worse. I could’ve ended up like Haley Joel Osment and see dead folks everywhere. And it wouldn’t be the cool dead dudes, either, like Jimmy Hendrix, or Jim Henson, or… Benjamin Disraeli. No. Instead, it’d be that annoying woman down the street who always yelled at you for walking across her lawn when you were a kid. Or the high school gym teacher who always picked on you with screams of “C’mon, I said HUSTLE!” Oh man, can you imagine a crowd of loud, obnoxious creatures following you around all day making life miserable? It’d be like… being Octomom. Haha! ZING! Who says I can’t be relevant and edgy!

But I digress. The next time you have a drink of your favorite liquor, please think of the children. And by “children”, I mean me. Poor little Akela, standing alone at a party, clutching his glass of Coke to himself, watching with hungry eyes the rest of the room mingle, dance, flirt, and generally have some worry-free fun, fueled by free-flowing libations. Do him favor. Send a cute drunk girl over to him. There’s something to be said for the “contact high”, especially when it leads to a next morning of recriminations and awkward disentanglements. Thank you, alcohol! Awwwwwwww, YEAH.

Why can’t we not be sober?
I just want to start this over
Why can’t we sleep forever?
I just want to start this over
-- "Sober", Tool

JayV

Click to listen to this blogpost!

According to lore -- and by "lore", of course, I mean "Wikipedia" -- there really is no supportable reason behind the fact that traditionally, Friday the 13th is considered a day of bad luck. Mostly, it's a concatenation of the belief that Fridays are unlucky, and that the number Thirteen is similarly unlucky. But you have to admit: it's been pretty unlucky for Jason Voorhees' victims. And as a side note: Jason, look, I get the whole "iconic" thing, okay? But c'mon, that hockey mask is SO 80's! Kick it to the curb, man! Update your look. I'm thinking... Michael Jackson mask. Now THAT dude is scary! Wha -- no, I'm not taking a dig at the guy's music -- hell no! I love Off the Wall! ... WHAT? "Man In the Mirror"? Man, Michael would FREAK OUT if he ever saw a man in HIS mirror!

Hold up, hold up. I gotta audiocast to do. I'll talk to you later, Jason. Mm-kay. Give my love to your sister. Bye.

Anyway: Friday the 13th. Like so much of what passes for culture these days, this phenomenon seems to exist simply because people expect it to exist. It's like not wearing green on St. Patrick's day -- suddenly, everyone's Irish, and out to pinch the holy hell outta you. It's assumed behavior, based on nothing more than hearsay, and a ton of media behind it. Take your favorite sitcom, for example. Writers stuck for ideas? Base an episode around Friday the 13th, have one of your characters take it so seriously that they refuse to go outside for fear of something awful happening, and boom! HILARITY AND HIJINKS!

But I'm here to tell you: Friday the 13th is, in fact, the luckiest day of the year. Why? Because of Newton's Third Law of Motion that states that for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. Lemme 'splain, Loosy.

There is something insidious and powerful to the adage "Opposites attract". People who are allergic to cats find themselves constantly at the center of feline attention.

Allergic human: Crap, you didn't tell me you have a cat -- I'm totally allergic!
Cat owner: Oh, don't worry about Mr. Squinkles, he's afraid of people. He'll never even come near you. He just runs away when -- oh, wow, look at that, he's coming right for you!
Cat: I LOVE YOU!
Allergic Human: *explodes*

That guy you've had a crush on for months now, who you just know is absolutely perfect for you, is going to end up getting together with that unbelievably skanky cougar the next cubicle over, even though they have absolutely nothing in common except MAYBE biology based on the carbon atom. It's like rain on your wedding day, Alanis.

This kind of thing happens all the time, and we just write it off to silly bad luck. However, it applies in spades during Friday the 13th, because of everyone running around in dread of some form of bad luck that's going to strike them like a greasy lightning bolt from the sky, Danny Zuko-style. By fearing it, these people attract bad luck! But you, O fortunate one, can take advantage of this fact by observing the Third Law.

It's all about energy. Positive energy and negative energy are constantly swirling around you in flux. Push some positivity this way, and negativity rushes in to fill the void. The universe maintains balance. So, it should naturally follow that while everyone's out there drawing in all this negative Friday the 13th energy, you're in a position to reap the benefits of the concomitant positive energy flow rushing in to fill the void! Don't know how? Here's what you do:

Although this might go against everything you've come to expect from life, go ahead and expect the best to happen. Make reservations for that restaurant you've always wanted to visit, yet is always booked solid. On Friday the 13th, you can get in. Drive downtown for a packed event: you'll find parking. Take that extra-long lunch: your boss will be too busy to notice. On Friday the 13th, pay close attention to your life. Happy accidents will occur, but you need to be in a receptive state to observe them! Take it from me. I was once an oblivious consumer, joylessly wandering through life, unaware that the entire time the universe was simply itching to give me gifts if only I'd been aware enough to recognize them. And now look at me! I have an amazing son who is already a Nathan Fillion times smarter than I'll ever be. I have this audiocast with which I'm free to express my pent-up ideas, and I have a thriving network of friends via Twitter!

It's all about expectations, kids. If you expect today to be horrible, then congratulations -- lemme know how that works out for you. But if you let yourself soak up the positive energy carelessly pushed away be so many people on a daily basis, then the world will roll in ecstasy at your feet.

Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm off to make a call to the Fab Five. We're planning a Very Special Episode of Queer Eye: Friday the 13th Part VIII.2: Jason Takes Manhattan... BY STORM. Freak Chic, baby! The new Voorhees line? It'll MURDER you.

I don't know why I feel this way
I don't know if it's right or wrong to laugh at misfortune
Darkness can never last too long
When you laugh in its face

-- "Only Makes Me Laugh", Oingo Boingo