Lost in space and lost in time…and meaning

John Scalzi was on a panel at ALA with Charlotte Jones, which has absolutely nothing to do with anything except Charlotte Jones is the granddaughter of Madeleine L’Engle who is one of my favorite authors and the wikipedia article on her divided up her Austin and Murry-O’Keefe books into Chonos (Austin) and Kairos (Murry-O’Keefe). Those two words both refer to time and I wanted to capture the idea of the two kinds of time here, as I have thought about them off and on for years.

Kairos (καιρός) is an ancient Greek word meaning the “right or opportune moment,” or “God’s time.” The ancient Greeks had two words for time, chronos and kairos. While the former refers to chronological or sequential time, the latter signifies “a time in between”, a moment of undetermined period of time in which “something” special happens. What the special something is depends on who is using the word. While chronos is quantitative, kairos has a qualitative nature.

This past weekend was the ultimate handfasting. Marcey is now official. It was an absolutely wonderful event and it’s true, being married really does change things.
In Greek mythology, Chronos (Χρόνος in Greek) in pre-Socratic philosophical works is said to be the personification of time. He emerged from the primordial Chaos.

Friday afternoon

I should be filing, but what the hell…it’s Friday afternoon and I am not in the mood to file. At least I am in a mood of some sort…it has been very black and depressed and angry out for the better part of a week. But a couple of vicodin and an extended sleep yesterday has helped put out my fibro flare and I really do feel better.

Talked to Heather about her new job. Got a short email from my mom. Set up some projects for next week. This weekend is Taste of Champaign, but I probably won’t go. Tomorrow we have to get ready for the handfasting on Sunday. I’m looking forward to it because it’s the right thing to do (and maybe it will reduce the tension and stress when it’s over). Then all I have to do is get ready for the Heinlein Centennial. Not only am I going to be on vacation from July 3-10 with TC, but it ought to be a kick butt time… and we will get to see Spider and Barnstead and all sorts of cool people. Heck, I may even get to meet Buzz Aldrin!

The Ferret on Polyamory

http://theferrett.livejournal.com/936733.html?view=48279069#t48279069

He rocks!!!

cleaning house

The Anchoress posted today about cleaning house, among other things and this part of her post really spoke to me:

There are a lot of people in my house right now – several people home from college who either grew up here or are spending the summer, Buster and his large, noisy, pals. But today everyone is out and will be for a while, so I’m going to use the time for a bit of intensive housecleaning of the both literal and metaphorical sort, because I have a lot to think about, and lately it seems like none of us really get to think. Something is always blaring at us and we seem to be living in incessant states of reaction.

I feel that way alot. Sometimes peace just isn’t out there…even when I put my earplugs in.

On another note, Dreamy Jim’s mother, Anne, passed away. She was a lovely woman. We met in Callahan’s and I think she raised a fine son. I grieve with DJ.

Monday, these are the days of our lives…

So, the weekend was lovely (except I ended up in tears multiple times because my emotions were all squirrelly and my blood sugar went really screwy on Sunday). Caught up on “kids” (the soap opera “All My Children“) and put away laundry. Bought plants for the yard on Saturday. I’m going to try to have another miniature rose garden and some coleus, and I bought some Asiatic lilies. It was too damned hot to get rid of weeds or to plant anything.

We had company on Sunday evening for TC’s birthday. Sean made the beer grilled chicken recipe I found and I think everyone had a good time. I am not much of a party giver, but this one actually worked well. It also gave me an opportunity to get two of my friends together. They already know each other, just not very well. I want to have girlfriends to hang out with…it’s not something I’ve had since high school really…

Looks like the whole “new service model” is going to start affecting me personally, RSN. Nothing is written in stone, but I am coming up with a concrete plan to get the stuff from CPLA to here BEFORE the start of fall semester (classes end on Aug 4 and start again on Aug 22…could be interesting.) If I get all worked up about this and nothing happens I will be pissed. Unfortunately, since I am NOT in charge and I have very little influence over my librarian, the executive committee, or anyone else who is making these decisions, being pissed won’t help me at all.

Sean started his 2-10 shift today. He will be on that for two weeks and then he will either stay on that shift or move to the 8pm-4am shift. I know what I would prefer.

OMG Zombies

Oh dear. There are no patrons in the library. No one wants books. No one wants information. I don’t know why. I’m sitting here waiting for someone to ask me a question. I wonder where everyone is.

There is noise on the first floor. Sounds like the Alumni and Academic Center is having an event. They have lots of events, and since it is summer they are taking care of registration for the incoming freshmen in the college of ACES. Freshmen are cute…but they are noisy. Maybe it is the people from the Slavic Conference…they use the Heritage room sometimes, and they can be noisy.
Ah, someone is coming up the stairs…some freshfaced young thing…looks a little goth (and kind of blank). Must be someone in NRES (They tend to be granola crunchers…)

Shhhhhh! Too noisy. I’ll just direct him to the public terminal…we have 30+ terminals here, and wireless internet. This kid looks too old to be a freshman…

I just hit refresh on the Drudge Report. There is a breaking story. Apparently, there has been a simultaneous report of zombies(?) on the East and West coast…let me Google this…

more later…a bunch more goth types just came up the stairs…ewwwwww, this girl wants to know about the care and feeding of maggots!!!!!

What I do when I should be working

A quote from Lorcan Dempsey’s blog (He’s vice president and chief strategist at OCLC):

Manuel Castells’ Rise of the Network Society is a loose, baggy monster of a book, to hijack an expression. It is full of memorable phrases. One that has stuck in my mind is his catchy definition of space as ‘material support for time-sharing social practices’. This is in the context of how networks create new spaces for social practices.

The definition of space he quotes from Manuel Castell’s book tickled me. I clicked on the link which took me to the WorldCat beta page which showed me that the book is in BEL (Business and Economics Library-UIUC) so I pulled up my ID from Voyager and requested it. It should show up on our hold shelf tomorrow or Thursday.

I LOVE living in the future.

I’m up and down

…which would be fine if I was on a roller coaster. Actually, things are pretty good. Sean started working again yesterday. The handfasting is approaching rapidly (and I think Marcey and Cheron are both going to be okay…sometimes it is hard to be in the middle). To digress, the first episode of the new season of Big Love was last night. One thing that struck me was that Margene and Nikki said they weren’t sure about being married to Bill without Barb, because they married them both. With the wedding coming up in 2 weeks, that caused me to think about Cheron and Marcey and how I feel about them and being married to them. Cheron’s feelings are that she doesn’t want to promise anything that she doesn’t feel…but I’m not sure she really feels married to any of us.

(Also, I have work to do and I don’t want to do it, I want to hang out on the net and catch up with my virtual life.)

Deeksha

From the Daily OM:

June 7, 2007 Deeksha Permanent Enlightenment Deeksha (also spelled diksha) is a Sanskrit word, meaning benediction or invocation of divine help; in this case, a divine energy transfer. Described as a golden ball of energy descending into the head, this energy activates a shift in the brain, allowing you to realize your oneness with all creation. This is the true meaning of “enlightenment”—a state of mind that is in constant recognition of the reality of oneness. The cause of the majority of suffering in the world is a sense of separation, from the world itself, each other, and from our source. But the pure energy transferred through deeksha helps you realize that the sense of a separate self is an illusion. And, once this higher state of consciousness is attained, it is permanent. To experience the divine energy transfer of deeksha, you do not need to change your lifestyle or make any vows. It is not limited to followers of any one religion, nor does it come with rules for the practice of a set of rituals. The state of mind attained with deeksha is not one that can be pursued or attained through personal effort. Only someone specifically trained can activate the various centers in the brain with their energy, initiating the process of change that allows an intelligent flow of cosmic energy to elevate you into an altered state, restructuring the brain and awakening the seeker to the awareness of wholeness and oneness. Since it is a biological event, it can be experienced by anybody. Though enlightenment doesn’t happen instantly for everyone, lives have changed significantly in terms of overall happiness, a capacity for love, and a sense of peace. Those who have attained enlightenment say it is not a mystical state that takes you out of the world, but it allows you to experience the divine in everyday life. Because of this, each time another person accepts deeksha and raises their consciousness, all of us move toward the ultimate goal of uplifting the consciousness of humanity to one of connection and unity.

Zen blog simplification

Zen habits today suggested cleaning up your RSS feeds…so I did. Didn’t get down to 16 like Leo did, but I got rid of the ones I don’t read anyhow… I didn’t drop any of the Librarian feeds or web comics, but I dumped the news feeds (boing boing, fark, slash.dot) because I don’t have time. I dumped the Locus feed…don’t remember what else…

I’d go through my Friends list (as much as I don’t want to lose anyone there are people I have on the list that I don’t really even know who they are…they are just friends of friends…)but I don’t have time to read LJ anyway…

I need to clean out my email and label everything as well…but it all takes time. Time I should be doing my “real” job(tm).

Simplification and balance. I am doing it now…. (present tense, not simple future) That’s zen.