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The Magical Minimalism of Microformats - Open - Code - New York Times Blog

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The Magical Minimalism of Microformats - Open - Code - New York Times Blog

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Newsvine - Putting a "Seed Newsvine" Link on Your Own Site

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A Man on a Mission saying...........

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EXPATRIAT or UNPATRIOTIC or JUST BEING AVANT GARDE

noreply@blogger.com (drbehavior) — Fri, 09 Nov 2007 09:12:00 +0000

It just so happens that many of the people whose Blogs I happen to read are either American and/or Canadian who, for some reason, have chosen to live abroad. I myself am a Canadian who, by choice, live in the United States and have done so, on and off, for most of my adult life. Over the years, what I've found is, both of 'my' countries have cultural, educational, architectural, treasures to offer - and that's only naming a very few of the myriad gifts that each of them gives freely to their native sons and adoptees alike.
I can't even begin to articulate properly how grateful I am to Uncle Sam for the education that was provided to me. No other country in the world, including my own, could have come close to giving me what I was given here. That is, at the time I wanted to enroll in graduate school the field of neurological psychology was virtually unheard of. There were a smattering of courses, all with various names, but no university, other than the one I chose to attend was sufficiently open-minded to be willing to hobble together classes from various and sundry departments not only to educate me but also to grant me a post graduate degree. That's something I've found about the Americans thats always garnered my full and total respect, that is, the willingness to keep an open mind and to be future orientated almost as if it were unnatural to be anything else.
You can, therefore, imagine my ire when I read Blogs written by 'expats' living abroad who compare the country they're now in with their homeland. I grant you that Europe may be considerably older than the United States and that, in some cases, age can be indicative of wisdom. By the same token there is an old saying that goes something like; "there's no fool like an old fool". What I'm getting at is, Paris may be the home of certain fashion houses that are established and, in there own way, extraordinary. The 'City of Lights' may also be a culinary magnet to a considerable number of people who like to refer to themselves as 'Foodies'. Also, Spain has a particular kind of pig (no, I'm not speaking of Franco) that would be very difficult to replicate in any other country while Italy has cheeses that are unique and Greece has olives distinct to them. The bottom line; however, is that each of these countries has developed their specializations over centuries while we here in the United States are a mere two hundred years old. With that number in mind, we must acknowledge ourselves to be truly in our infancy as a nation. Yet, we've conquered space, developed the Internet, been home to Julia Child and Jacques Pepin, seen Napa bring forth wines comparable to the best any other country has to offer, and I could go on and on but I think you see my point. I'm not saying that other countries don't have wonderful food and clothes and cultures etc., to offer and I'm also not saying that they ought not to be extolled. What I am saying is that Americans living abroad needn't tout the wares of there adopted countries as if it and it alone were the first to discover the wheel. I'd feel a heck of a lot better if, when they were 'pontificating' that they made more favorable references and comparisons to their home than they currently do.

Happy Birthday - Is it Happy - or - All about Aging

noreply@blogger.com (drbehavior) — Tue, 06 Nov 2007 05:29:00 +0000

Some birthdays are more difficult to bare than are others, perhaps, the most difficult are the ones that end in a zero - particularly when that zero is preceded by a five. One of my internet acquaintance friends, you know the kind that you form a very fast and very strong bond with despite the fact that you've known them for only five or ten minutes or less (well, think of how many e-mails have gone hither and thither prior to you considering them to be amongst the litany of those you call unmet friends) wrote me about a 'magical' birthday celebration she had this year in the north of France. It had been, according to her, an incredible time partially due to the fact that her husband and son were able to join her for the first time in quite some time. Then, almost in a clandestine fashion, at the very end of the e-mail extolling all of the celebratory events that they had enjoyed collectively she closed with a single, very telling sentence in which she summed up her true feelings. When I first read the e-mail, I wondered whether or not she was totally cognizant of what she had written. Upon further reflection, it occurred to me that she knew very well that she was dashing-off this supposed note to a friend who just happened to be, amongst other things, a behavioral scientist. I concluded that she knew full well precisely what she was doing and, after a fashion, was asking me how to deal with her feelings. This is what I answered her on the occasion of celebrating her fiftieth birthday;
"I always get such a sense of joy when I read your writings and, in particular, when I see your name on an e-mail header. I suppose that’s one aspect of my personality that I tend to cherish, that is, the child inside of me who’s very much alive and well and kicking. You do know that, comparatively speaking, I’m considerably older than you are – well– I suppose now that you do, the proverbial cat’s out of the bag. How well I remember, however, when age, my age in particular, wasn’t treated quite so serendipitously. It’s an established fact, amongst behavioral scientist, that all humans, despite protestations to the contrary, have a particular point in there life-line that quite unsuspectingly evokes a crisis-like emotion. However, like so many other accepted notions, knowing that a crisis is forthcoming doesn’t necessarily mean that individuals have the wherewithal to prevent it nor does it mean that they’re in any way prepared to deal with it. For instance, someone can spend there whole entire life studying why humans behave as they do, yet, not unlike the shoemaker’s child that went without shoes – so too does that adage apply to students of the social sciences. Gerontologist fear age in the self-same manner that Cardiologists fear heart attacks (and please don’t ask me what Proctologist fear)while Psychotherapists invariably suffer from a paucity of communication skills. If one digs just a bit deeper what’s found, when it comes to humans aging, is the all important ‘tangent’ that touches all mankind at two distinct intervals. The first being the need to accept one’s own mortality in order to proceed to the next plane while the second interval touched upon is reminiscent of grief. We wouldn’t be human if we simply marched through life without occasionally glancing in the mirror or at our spouses or at our children and realized that time was marching on. If we accept that somewhat scary premise then, of necessity, we have to accept that everyone ages and that no one gets out of this world alive. OMG! Who, tell me who wants to deal with that sort of notion? Once we confront and integrate that macabre fact we grieve for ourselves and the ultimate loss of our ‘self’. In that grief there is an inevitable question we’re compelled to ask. That is, did I make the right choices along the way? Should I have done so and so is usually followed up quickly by; what if I had done this and that instead of that and this? Once these steps are dealt with affectively and effectively, we tuck the whole bubba-miseh in the back of our subconscious and travel on our merry way being a better ‘self’ than we ever were before. You know as well as I do that with self-acceptance comes a well-spring of joy and in that joy a child emerges who very much resembles ourselves except that this ‘child’ is imbued with wisdom and experience and, most importantly, indefatigably knows the rules of the game. Happy, happy birthday – Friend – now go and play and have some fun."
For those of you who might be reading this entry while simultaneously traversing one of these 'hallmark' occasions as well, I hope that my overview helps partially ease the situation for you as well.

GEVALT

noreply@blogger.com (drbehavior) — Sat, 03 Nov 2007 06:49:00 +0000

I'm a Blog Surfer. For several years, essentially since 'blogging' started to gain in popularity, I made a conscious choice to follow rather than to lead. I had this innate feeling that a veritable cornucopia of folks would take to writing on subjects that would be extremely far ranging. It seemed inevitable that even those people that chose to write on similar topics would wind-up taking very individual approaches. For me, adopting the 'read - wait - and - see' attitude was not easy. My usual habit is to, how shall I say, dive right in and certainly never wait for tufts of grass to grow under my feet.
I must admit that reading so many different blogs written by so many different people has been an exceptionally good and unusually voyeuristic experience. At times, even though I've been alone with only the company of my laptop, I've found myself blushing at the level of intimacy that some of my fellow 'surfaholics' have chosen to use. Compound that particular level of self-disclosure with language rarely used in mixed company - even by today's standards and my quest for a more expansive prurient-type of education has certainly been attained. On the other hand, there certainly have been times that I've scratched my shaved head in wonderment while questioning why other people even bothered trying so hard to write essentially about nothing at all.
At any rate, for me the common denominator has been that I've enjoyed myself and learned a great deal more about folks regardless of the sort of blog they've chosen to write. Finally, just like real life, some Bloggers have stuck around, stuck it out, and become friends while far more have started with a passion, changed course, and inevitably have left the screen without so much as a 'goodbye'.
Now, filled with trepidation, I've decided to take my turn at last. For better or for worse, as they say, I've decided that the time for sitting on the sidelines and/or lurking in the shadows is over. Oy Gevalt, as they say in the vernacular, I'm here at last and hopefully to stay. Stick around at least until tomorrow when I let you in on what it is that I plan to write about and why, with all due humility, I think that I'll be sufficiently unique so that you'll not only enjoy reading my posts but you'll also want to add me to your list of prospective virtual friends.