today i'm reading opinions on the "hipster"

so the term has taken on a life of its own, to be scoffed at, to be hurled in insult, to be joked about over whiskey, to be shrugged off in apathy.  i think it's safe to say it's rarely worn badge-like.  however you look at it, in my own personal experience, and i'm sure many others', my generation has "hipster" issues. so i guess today this is where i am, reading a post on Flavorwire titled "What Comes After the Hipster" 

"Of course, I could be wrong. The best bet for the next thing would be for something to emerge from the Occupy movement: less concerned about music and clothing, more concerned about politics; less concerned about differentiating yourself from the people around you, more concerned about working with them; less concerned about status, more concerned about social change; less ironic, more earnest; less polished, more grungy. The one thing I don’t think will happen is that youth culture will fragment into cultural tribes. Youth culture is all about emulation, being hip however hip happens to be defined at the moment, and far from fragmenting the culture, technology provides a means to unify it, by disseminating it, more efficiently than ever.

On the other hand, what the hell do I know?"

i'm downloading the Pyramids album Pyramids based solely on the album artwork alone. I can handle a little shallow decision making.

i like these pouring books installations by Spanish artist Alicia Martin

this is one of  3 she has done, more pics here

what i can't stop watching today

It's always good to go back to Shel Silverstein, always

What I'm watching over and over today

The Fantastic Flying Books of Morris Lessmore.  Recent Oscar winner.

a revisit to the otherday conversation

Warning - I'm going to spout some personal views here.  Stop if you don't care.  Which I don't expect you to.

In reply to a social media post with grammatical errors, Roberta posed the question “What is the world coming to?”.  A common enough question, used rather lightly, echoed by more than a few generations.  However what it really evoked in me was that maybe it’s less “what is the world coming to?” but more “what has the world always been and is only now being brought to light through so many publicly accessible social media forums”.

There’s always always pros and cons, especially to the expanse of information, and more specifically the hyper-access provided by the phenomenon that is the Internet.  It’s something I love about studying librarianship.  Being stewards of information, I stand firmly behind the benefits that come from efforts that further unbiased and open access to information.  Even if one of the downfalls of this wide open access is that the information to be found is less desirable or less advantageous than we would like it to be.

Such as the truth that most of the people you know in your little bubble of life are relatively undereducated, terribly narcissistic individuals who don’t actually know, or more likely know but don't respect the English language and their intellectual presentation enough to actually pay attention to, the difference between they’re their and there.  Maybe it’s not the ruin of this generation, but the truth that has always been and is just now being revealed.  

what i'm hearing today

"I'm not an optimist.  I'm not a pessimist.  I'm a very serious possibilist." 
   -Hans Rosling 

year-end thoughts from C-PET

"Questions come before answers. We must be Asking Tomorrow's Questions (the motto of C-PET)"

-Nigel M. de S. Cameron 
President and CEO, Center for Policy on Emerging Technologies

Quote for Today

"I fear that we in the mass media are creating such a market for mediocrity that we’ve diminished the incentive for excellence.  I think we’re losing our ability to manage ideas, to contemplate, to think. “

 -Ted Koppel, 1990, from Memory & Imagination: New Pathways to the Library of Congress

this picture is making me so happy right now