Another month has come and gone on this blue globe. The annual marks of mortality have left another ring and my weblog has been mostly silent. It’s not because I don’t like you, all half dozen of you who have subscribed to my feed, it’s because I pretend to myself that I’m busy, that there are other demands on my time. It’s a poor excuse my friend.
In “real life” I’m nearing the end of my third semester as a master’s student at the School of Information at UMich. I think this may be the best academic semester I’ve had so far, at least as far as the asymptotic union between my own interests and the classes I’ve taken. The professors have been top-notch. The topics just as good. Information Ethics took a decidedly psychological turn, but in a very interesting way. Information Culture nicely balanced history and sociology. Intellectual Property felt a bit disperse but still grounded in important questions. The next two weeks will be the big push to finish up all the papers and finals.
The Thanksgiving holidays were enjoyable. I went out for dinner and a movie on Thanksgiving with my friend Josh and stopped by his house for turkey dinner on Friday. It would’ve been nice to travel back to Minneapolis for the annual get together but neither money nor the time were available.
Looking back on the month there’s not much to report on my writings here at Eccentric Eclectica.
- In arguments by nostalgia, I expressed my frustration with the critics of information overload and the all-too-human tendency to think that our time on this world is unique, that no one ever dealt with changes as immense as the ones we experience today.
- I reviewed my social bookmarking practices just as a way to remind myself of how I manage my own information today. The whole process of bookmarking content on the web has changed a lot in the last 6 years since I was first using Backflip and failing.
- Teaching and Emotion offered a few anecdotes about teachers I’ve learned from in the past and the importance of enthusiasm for teaching. There’s nothing worse than taking a course from someone who doesn’t care about the material.
- In a list will make it so I mentioned three interesting lists I found on the web about being interesting, being efficient, and what to learn.
- Finally I tried to find a difference between information and media ethics. I’m not sure if I succeeded but what I suggested was a difference between mass communication and directed communication. The media rarely treats the individual as a thou, instead we are treated as a consumer, definitely not as an end.
