Made out of people

CSCW Return

Back at work, and on a fat internet connection and a working computer.

Some quick notes:

• On Nov 2, I got spam with the title: "Are you desperate from your country? Come live in the USA!"
• Lots to think about with backchannels (still!) and inattention
• If the subject of the discussion inside an online space is mostly that space, is that ok, or does it point to a lack of vitality? If so, does this point to my own lack of vitality, as a person who largely studies online spaces?
• I listened to "deep house" music that was actually acid jazz remixes, but never made it to a bar a hundred miles out of chicago, with half a tank of gas, that played both kinds of music.
• The US is a stunningly beauitful country: whatever your politics, it's wonderful to watch little towns built into the bends of rivers and the tops of mountains and badlands and patchwork farms and low clouds rolling across the Rockies. The flight down into Seattle -- Mt. St. Helens, Mt. Adams, and Mt. Ranier towering over smaller snowcapped Cascades -- is humbling.
• The Seattle airport's new expansion has a great combination of cool art, and a historic plane: a replica of Dick Rutan's Voyager. (If the name "Rutan" rings a bell, this is the brother of Burt Rutan, of SpaceShipOne / X-Prize fame.) The displays of rocks and water are surprisingly relaxing for a baggage-claim area. (Really.)
• When I walked into the Sea/Tac baggage area, a military unit had just landed. The guys stood around, carrying green bags and wearing casual fatigues, while the Sergeant shouted their names as their footlockers rolled off the lines. "Sir, here sir!" "Good. Take your bag." "Sir yes sir!"