Mike’s Notebook

Posted on July 1, 2011 by Mike Swickey

UPDATE: All writing is now at mikesnotebook.com … I am keeping Paper Notes up as an archived site only. I have had to remove all comments as the spam filter couldn’t keep up with the deluge of spam – the bane of blogs everywhere. It’s too bad as there were many quality comments here, but the problem was just too big. I hope you enjoy the archived posts here at Paper Notes In A Digital World.

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I’ve wanted to supplement this blog for a long time with something that I could just post quick photos, audio, links, videos, short text posts and such, in an online-notebook of sorts. Well, I now have just that and it’s up and running. What to expect there? Things that I find interesting – literature, philosophy, neuroscience, psychology, life balance, the importance of capturing our lives in journals and notebooks, and more. I hope it will be of interest to people who like to think and frequently ponder why we’re something instead of nothing. It’s really just a continuation of my ‘general blogging’ that I have done since my first blog at GeoCities in 1997. Oh, it’s called, “Mike’s Notebook” and can be found at – surprise! – mikesnotebook.com.

Just an aside, one of my teachers (Eby Grove) at Northwest Classen High School (I was Class of 1977) in Oklahoma City always told me I had potential “If you would just come to class!” She was impressed with my always writing down ideas in a notebook/journal and she told me to, “keep it up.” Mrs. Grove, I have – for another 35 years(!) She was/is a caring teacher and I regret not spending more time in her class. While I’ll always keep my multiple paper notebooks and journals – here’s my 21st Century online version. Thanks, Mrs. Grove. mikesnotebook.com

Posted in Housekeeping | Comments Off on Mike’s Notebook

The ‘Moments’ Of Life

Posted on May 29, 2011 by Mike Swickey

I promised I would blog this short four-minute video from Radiolab once every year. This powerful short film, inspired by David Eagleman’s incredible book of short stories, Sum, is a film to make you stop and take a ‘moment’ to remember that life is a collection of — ‘moments’. If you’ve never seen this video – it’s a must-see. Enjoy.


 

 

Posted in Mysteries of life | 2 Comments

Short-Short Story From Franz Kafka

Posted on May 23, 2011 by Mike Swickey

Franz Kafka’s style is different, to be sure. He’s a love-hate type of writer and I’ve always been on the fence with the following story. Reading it anew the other day though, I decided it really does pack a punch. What do you think?

The Sudden Walk
by Franz Kafka
Translated by Willa and Edwin Muir

When it looks as if you had made up your mind finally to stay at home for the evening, when you have put on your house jacket and sat down after supper with a light on the table to the piece of work or the game that usually precedes your going to bed, when the weather outside is unpleasant so that staying indoors seems natural, and when you have already been sitting quietly at the table for so long that your departure must occasion surprise to everyone, when, besides, the stairs are in darkness and the front door locked, and in spite of all that you have started up in a sudden fit of restlessness, changed your jacket, abruptly dressed yourself for the street, explained that you must go out and with a few curt words of leave-taking actually gone out, banging the flat door more or less hastily according to the degree of displeasure you think you have left behind you, and when you find yourself once more in the street with limbs swinging extra freely in answer to the unexpected liberty you have procured for them, when as a result of this decisive action you feel concentrated within yourself all the potentialities of decisive action, when you recognize with more than usual significance that your strength is greater than your need to accomplish effortlessly the swiftest of changes and to cope with it, when in this frame of mind you go striding down the long streets – then for that evening you have completely got away from your family, which fades into insubstantiality, while you yourself, a firm, boldly drawn black figure, slapping yourself on the thigh, grow to your true stature.

All this is still heightened if at such a late hour in the evening you look up a friend to see how he is getting on.

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A Must-Read Post From Jeffrey Tang

Posted on May 11, 2011 by Mike Swickey

In a throwback to the weblogs of the 90’s – this is a post from me that simply links to another post. This article from Jeffrey Tang is so well written and simply needed to be said…

The internet is a noisy place.

The prevailing notion of ‘How to Use Social Media’ seems to be “the louder the better.”

For example: Position yourself as an expert! Advertise your Exclusive Private Coaching Program of Awesome! Learn these sneaky tricks to ensnare more subscribers! Write more how-to guides and top-10 lists! Find a Niche and a Message and promote, promote, promote! Louder, louder, LOUDER!

Oy. It’s like we’re becoming human infomercials.

Read his Entire Article, “Dear Fellow Bloggers” Here.

It’s well worth your time and one of my favorite articles of the year.

Posted in The Wired World | Comments Off on A Must-Read Post From Jeffrey Tang

The Study of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Posted on May 9, 2011 by Mike Swickey

“From the mid-1840s until Henry W. Longfellow’s death in 1882, the room served as his study, a well-used place where he read, wrote poetry, correspondence, and journal entries, reviewed proofs, visited with family and friends, smoked cigars, played with his children, and took naps. During Fanny’s lifetime, although clearly Henry’s room, it was to a great degree her study and a family gathering room as well.”

The Longfellow Home Museum

 

 

 

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