Endless Knots

"Texting is email - only with bad grammar"

Had the chance to speak to a group of execs this week who are worried about, well, everything from their kids doing outrageous things on Facebook (one took a pseudonym to spy but the kid quickly figured it out) to how to load his iPod to what-the-bleep is Twitter. After some table discussion about their worst recent moment with technology, they reported back. One clever guy stood and said this (see subject line).

I didn't get to tell my worst. Daughter and I were watching TV a few weeks ago. The outrageously large number of clickers that seem to litter the TV room were unfortunately on the sofa between us. One of us, probably I, inadvertently grazed a hand over one of the aforementioned clickers. Disaster. Screen goes blank but not completely - it's a hazy blue with words in the corner that mean nothing to either of us: "Input 2." You tell me. Both of us were clueless, of course. We pressed everything in sight and then miraculously we got the channel back. But not before both of us were near tears. Which reminds me...when I got my first cell phone, I cried. Just looking at the instruction book.

If I ever write a book about taxi drivers...

...it will have to include a profile of the man whose cab I ended up in today. I always speak to the driver and sometimes there are unexpected rewards, like my experience a few months ago when the Tibetan driver removed a small mandala he had hung on his rear view mirror and insisted I take it.

I like to play the "where are you from" card - and often it's rewarded with the kind of response I got this evening from the driver from Ghana, who'd just become a citizen and was going to vote in his first election. He had his voter registration card and was very excited.

But the incident I'll never forget is the Cambodian driver I had earlier in the day (I'm traveling, obviously), who was 15 when the unspeakably evil despot whose name I don't even want to type took over his country. The driver began talking about what had happened relatively calmly but within a moment or two, he'd become very agitated, and within another few seconds, he was yelling and talking faster and faster, getting more and more upset, saying things I never would have wanted to hear about what happened in his beautiful homeland. I started to become concerned when he picked up speed, driving faster with each new incident that came to mind, connected and disconnected recollections piling one atop the other.What do you do in a situation like this, when you realize you've tapped into memories so horrific that the person relating them has little control, even thirty years later? I leaned forward, put my hand on his shoulder, tried to speak calmly, encouraging him to write it all down so that it wouldn't have such force the next time he thought about it. But mainly I wished that I had some magic potion that I could pour through his mind and wash away all the terrible haunting thoughts.

Congrats, Xujun

There's nothing like the first time. I'm talking about books here.

Xujun Eberlein's first story collection, Apologies Forthcoming, had its debut on Saturday in her lovely garden at her home near where we live. Thus, we made a point of stopping by to enjoy the moment, commune with her friends, and taste some delicious food.

Here, Xujun with one of my very closest of friends, none other than the hubby, Jeff Stamps, appropriately attired in the T-shirt that matches his vehicle.

May this book party, X, be your first of many. And, to my readers: I've read the collection and recommend it without reservation. Original and compelling.

R u worried abt dth of Englsh?

Whew. My English teacher mother is not having a conniption in heaven this morning. According to Carolyn Y. Johnson's piece in the Boston Globe this morning, "Is language dead or evolving?", students still know the difference between the shorthand they use for texting and posting (remember, they don't use email). That said, it ain't exactly my mother's English class:

A growing body of research shows electronic communications channels like instant messaging have created a kind of semi-speech - language that is between talking and writing. Some say it is evidence of evolution, not of decay.

"Languages are always changing, and that's a fact that language snobs need to get over and accept - because the only language that doesn't change is a dead language, like Latin," said Derek Denis, a graduate student in linguistics at the University of Toronto. This spring, he coauthored a study comparing the way teens speak and chat online. It was published in the journal American Speech.

Denis's study, "Linguistic Ruin? LOL! Instant Messaging and Teen Language," followed the online and spoken conversations of 71 Canadian teens over three years, tracking about one million IM words and 250,000 spoken words.

Contrary to the view that abbreviations and cute emoticons are at the radical edge of English language, the researchers found that the hybrid of written and spoken language is actually more conservative than speech alone.

And in the veggie garden

Arugula

Herbalicious

My friend Bruce has an herb farm. Result = lots of herbs received and planted today. Thanks, Bruce!

Thyme, sage, oregano, basil

 

Last of the peonies

A year to be remembered

 

Do I ask myself questions? Absolutely!

Do you? Listening to Pete Sampras, asks himself a question. Answers as if someone else has asked. Why are we questioning ourselves like this? Who started it? Is this a fad in French, Vietnamese, Portuguese? I don't know. And why don't I do it? ...

And for our final act, Virtual Teams dot dot dot

10:45 this morning at Enterprise 2.0 - Virtual Teams 2.0, 3.0, 4... - where we talk about what virtual teams mean to the fully collaborative enterprise now and in the future.

And at noon, I, along with other members of the Enterprise 2.0 Advisory Board, will lead the Town Hall wrap-up session. If it's half as lively as last year's Town Hall, which I facilitated with Stowe Boyd, it will be a lot of fun. One off-limits topic: wireless problems at the hotel. This is a topic for discussion long-term around conference facilities but meanwhile if we piled up all the complaints lodged with the hotel and the faultless conference organizers, we'd be able to climb out to the space station. Got it? :)))) Constructive comments, learning, insight, and suggestions for next year, welcome!

And thanks to the small but mighty band of greensters

Had an excellent conversation today at the Work Green, Work Virtually session at Enterprise 2.0. Slides will be posted. Used the stream of posts beginning here, continuing at The Content Economy, and then on to the flowchart from Michael Sampson as per below. We were joined by John Shea, a sport diver, who happens to be working for the company providing media services to the event. John has seen the death of coral reefs around the world, which he told me while we were setting up, so we asked him to say a few words. His contribution plus that of folks from Vanderbilt University, Canada, Washington, DC, and a few other places that I can't remember at the moment made for an unusually deep conversation. Thanks everyone. We collectively need to keep building lots of lookouts for this topic.