8tracks Mix: En verdad, una musa

Just created a new mix on 8tracks.com. It's a mixture of loungy/jazzy/quirky tunes, with a common thread of emotion woven through. Enjoy!

Soliloquy, Part 1

I don't like silence. I don't know why. There's something unnerving about a lack of aural stimulation. As I sit writing this, I can hear the buzz of the fluoro tube above my head, the rumble of a distant tram passing, a lone dog's bark, and the sound of my fingers punching at the keys. Even in this stillest of scenes there is sound.

I've often wondered why I find silence so distasteful. What does the lack of sound signify that makes me want to fill it with something, anything?

Maybe reversing the question will make it easier to answer. Why do I like noise, sound, music? Many reasons: the Beauty of rhythm. The aural masterpieces painted by timbre, melody, harmony, and even just plain noise. I like seeing order in seeming chaos: extracting a rhythm from sound waves, fluid progress of chords, patterns of intervals. Even in the absence of music, there is wonder to be experienced. When I walk through the city, I love to detune my ears, and let the spacial aspect of sound thrill me; the uncomposed masterpiece of audio engineering that is my immediate surroundings. I find some affinity with the avant-garde composer John Cage, who finds sound fascinating:



Cage claims to love silence. It's not real silence, though; for him, traffic noise counts as silence.
Indeed, Cage's most well-known work, 4'33", is not completely silent. The audience is encouraged to discover music in the sounds of their environment, rather than in the ordered structure of a musical score. No two "performmances" are alike, as each carries the unique tones and murmurings of the moments it occupies.

The Tremeloes might have thought that silence was golden, but I find it stark. What's your reaction to silence? I think I have more to say, but it hasn't crystallized in my head yet – you'll just have to sit quietly and wait…

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Photo: Bixentro on flickr

New blog!

In contrast to life, there hasn't been much happening here of late. Sorry!

However, I have just started a blog relating to the Research Project I've started at Swinburne.

You can read about what I'm doing over at The GLoo Factory. It assumes a fair amount of programming knowledge, so apologies if it doesn't make any sense :)

A.

Confused Twitter accounts: an observation

I checked my email last evening and discovered a new batch of Twitter users had started following my account. As I always do, I visited their account pages and looked for those I might be interested in following back. Unlike many Twitter users I know, I don't automatically follow every non-spam account that follows me: I look for people and organisations that I can interact with, converse with, gain value from.

Of late, I'm seeing a lot of accounts that just seem, well, odd. I pondered this out loud, and when Tim Malone asked me what I meant, I thought I'd try and distill my thinking into something coherent.

There are a number of things these odd-looking accounts have in common:

1. The accounts have a real person's name attached
2. The backgrounds advertise a company or an organisation
3. Their tweet streams don't fit either profile

Let me explain what I mean:

1. This isn't unusual at all, and by itself doesn't mean much — in fact, I expect most twitter accounts to have a real person on the other end. However, if I follow a personal account, I expect the way they tweet to reflect their personality, who they are, how they think. This is partly what makes Twitter such a rich online experience: opinions, conversations, jokes, games – there's always something going on.
2. I have no problem with corporate twitter accounts per sé: if you're using social media and networks to spread your company, good on you for being proactive! I follow a number of companies / organisations that I support, because they are focused and provide me with information and interaction that I wouldn't get otherwise. It provides a central point of contact for customer service, and makes hearing from these organisations easier. If I follow a company, I expect their tweets to be about services they offer, responses to customer feedback, or content that directly pertains to them.
3. What makes these accounts so strange to me is that they try to be both, and end up being neither. I don't expect a person tweeting as themselves to plaster advertising all over their Twitter page. On the other hand, I don't expect a company account to post quotes or links to online news stories that are of limited relevance to their organisation.
   

I am not a Social Media Expert (thank goodness!) But I do offer these suggestions under the umbrella of Common Sense:

If you're a person: don't sell yourself, be yourself. If you're a professional, no one is going to hire/collaborate/communicate with you because of your awesome Twitter background that contains half your resume. They're going to do those things because of how you act and interact online (just as they do offline).

If you're a company: keep your tweets directly related to company material. I don't expect a company to tell me about a news story, or give me an inspirational quote. I want to know what you're doing, and how you're making things better for your clients/customers. That doesn't mean every 2nd tweet should flog your product, but it does mean stay on message.

Decide what type of account you're starting, and stick with that. If you want to do both, make two accounts. Trying to be both just looks weird, and ends up being neither.

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Photo: Southend: Van Looy's Sandwich Board by DBullock. Used with Permission.

Bible Study update

We've had a few weeks without studies since the last update, what with a scheduled break and the mid-semester "holiday". There've been a couple of studies in that time, though, so apologies for being a bit behind.

First one is by Jeff, an introductory look at the highly controversial topic of gender roles (especially inside the church). Study + Notes [ZIP]

The second one is one I took on Leadership in the Church, and Paul's teachings on the sorts of leaders churches deserve to have. Study [PDF]

I hope these provoke questions and thoughts as you go through them :)

EDIT: Oops, Jeff's study notes are in a zip file, not a PDF. Fixed...

Meditation of the week

Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything. If any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to him. But when he asks, he must believe and not doubt, because he who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind. That man should not think he will receive anything from the Lord; he is a double-minded man, unstable in all he does.

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Ouch.

Bible Study: Thank God for Grace!

We're back from a scheduled break for just catching up, hanging out, and getting the low-down on how each other was getting on with life, study, etc.

This week, Paul takes a time-out from teaching Timothy to give thanks and praise to God for the grace He has given to him. He thinks about the implications of this, and we learn from his response.

Week 4: Thank God for Grace! [PDF]