Content and Creativity.

Time spares no one. That continuum ticks on, breath by breath, counting down and counting you out.

Yet family bond endures. It has been that way for centuries: hunting and gathering, agrarian and industrial society.

The very moment we fear that the machine will take over, that’s when we got Social, from Twist to Tweet.

Web Page or Front Page, we still have demand for Content and Creativity.

Story telling. The narrative, personal or institutional. Once upon a time, there was….

We don’ t exist in a vacuum. Instead, weakest or strongest link, we are a part of that chain, of continuity and 4-D universe.

What comes around comes around.

Carrying all that mass around, we search and seek for meaning in the mundane. But we are here, still here, on this New Years Eve. Champagne and confetti. Or we might as well lay down and die….

What is there to celebrate? The fact that we owe our existence to a host of people: food provider, transportation provider, internet provider, medical examiner (not yet).

We connect and we reject. We choose then we return the merchandise. Choices piling on top of other choices.

Sometimes, no choice at all.

That’s when we feel the helplessness of depending on others, when we face our limits.

Go ahead and connect, to link, to post, and to Like.

It’s all virtual, but real nevertheless.

Until we move on to something else, to other platform and play place.

Part of growth, of dying. Of shredding old skin and put on the new. Reinvention the Gaga’s way.

Lips singing and lips kissing, same-sex or hetero-sex.

Finding new combination, exploring alternative mode of existence. But the time continuum ticks on, as it always has.

Santa has left along with 2013. Everything was. Simple past. From here on, we all face new possibilities and potential.

Content-rich or content-poor, all up to you. Suit yourself. Ever since the invention of the zero, we have realized the futility and irony of our being: can’t do with it, and can’t do without it (the zero).

So, what’s left? Back to the cave, and see our shadow? Project ourselves onto others? Disliking someone or disliking ourselves? Kiss and make up, or split? Dilemma by definition is not to be solved. It is to be shared with others who have a heightened sense of empathy. Then we are back to needing others, fellow inmates in this asylum called Earth.

I don’t want to time-travel. In fact, I’d rather stay freeze-framed in time. Being just a boy, looking out to the game called life, where adults hurting each other and pretending to laugh (alcohol induced).  Being just a memory keeper of both the good and the bad times. So I can start my story with “Once upon a time….” all the while making up more sizzling detail to hold your attention. That attention has been split between screen flashes and banner ads, children demand and societal demand. The burden is on us, to keep creating and reinventing ourselves, shaping our narrative and destiny in the process. A guy walks into a bar….a boy born into an aging family….a girl growing up without a Dad….what’s the punch line? Will there be a happy ending. We want in. To be part of the story-telling and narrative written. But first, there must be conflict. Not too far-fetched so the audience can relate, can empathize and connect. We need Content and a bit of creativity. We got enough platform that last for a life time. Post-industrial society has more convenience than any earlier times, but for some reason, we find ourselves wanting. Kids still want to shoot randomly and then themselves.

Man still threw his baby out then jump from the tower (with reason known only to himself). In the absence of terrorist, we have projected onto that mirror, and found ourselves the very horror we have become. Good luck with happy endings.

More

When reading the ABOUT tab on some web sites, I got no idea what the companies were ABOUT.

Apparently they sell some intangible services, such as Human Development, but were afraid to say so. Others would try to get out of the box they found themselves in “we are more than just a hardware company, we also provide this and that”. More.

It takes a lot to say less and get More.

The KISS rule.

I took a few inter-disciplinary courses at Penn State (Science, Technology and Society), a baseline which set me on a generalist track. And because each field in and of itself takes up one’s life-time pursuit, the intersect of these fields overwhelmed me. Keep my curiosity up and ego in check.

Even now, we are working through the implications of globalization and free trade.

And that falls under just the Society heading alone.

As for technology, I have blogged about the rise of the machine, and its implications for human life i.e. the long disconnect.

I will leave Science to the scientists who research gene sequencing and try to find the cure for dementia and cancer.

We all want more, live longer and hopefully, find meaning during those extra years (my older siblings used to read serial Kung Fu novels when young, and now, watching Korean soap series upon retirement. I guess anything “foreign” can offer them MORE values than domestic).

We can’t take anything with us when we die, just as we did not bring anything to this world when we were born.

What matters is that journey, the pursuit and camaraderie (I miss walking to school with those young friends, just chatting about anything and everything. One conversation etched in my mind: the assassination of JFK).

Forget not the  past, but then try to. Because we can’t make progress without healing, and no healing when the chip is still on our shoulders.

Dementia sometimes is a good thing for those with a painful past (that makes up for most of us).

Besides, when we forget pain of the past, we have more room for even happiness.

Like de-fragmentation function on a computer which helps conserve more space more RAM.

Winter, symbol of hibernation, is behind us. Now is time for blossoming, for MORE.

Opportunity likes to dance with those who are already on the floor. May I have that next dance!