Data portability

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Interdependence - surprising things that happen...

I just moved abode - from a house to a flat - (the reasons are incidental i guess but related to this idea of interdependence). Anyhoo. I don't have internet access at the new place - and setting it up is tricky cos i want the internet access at the old place to be kept on so people can keep their email addresses. The problem is that at the old place the internet account and the telephone are both in my name. So this creates double the amount of work for me - cancelling the old one and setting up a new one at the new place. I wonder if there isn't some simple service that can sort this sort of thing out for me - trying to get hold of BT is not exactly easy - well i can get through to a machine but i can't get through to someone to explain my problem.

The long and short of this is that i have not sorted out my phone or internet and am using local cafes with wireless access to go online in the evening.

My usual place for this is 'an outlet' on the corner of Dale Street but it wasn't open so i wandered, computer under arm to NEXUS cafe. Turns out there is a music event on tonight 'this is not a band' - people drop-in and play instruments together with a bit of audience participation as to what the 'not a band' might play. So far i am enjoying it. And actually it is providing me with a nice little state of interdependence - free wireless, music, social company in exchange for a coffee and home made almond cake. I am wondering whether i should bother contacting BT and staying phoneless and internet-less at home.

The peeps here are also about to launch a community garden project for their regulars to come and get involved in. This greatly appeals to me as - i don't have a garden (i now live in a flat) and city living is sorely lacking in green spaces. I have just been reading about how people need to be able to shape the spaces they inhabit - a garden is a pretty cool starting point. And if it attracts birds and bees - well that's a whole other sustainable living interdependence. Here's hoping...

Self-expression

I was at a gig in reading this weekend - not a big one but a little one - Gravenhurst - supported and arranged by a number of smaller reading based bands. One of the bands that was playing organised the gig. It was funny watching twenty something geeky guys express themselves on guitars and drums (and often no vocals) - none of them had a very engaging stage 'presence' but if you closed your eyes the music took you places. It was pretty well organised and you could buy self-produced t-shirts, CDs. As I watched I remembered a time when i used to do performance poetry - i would drag my work colleagues at University down to the open mic slots at the Frog and Bucket and me and a technician would get up and spout terrible poetry. Quite often my slot would evolve into banter with the audience, as i forgot my lines and made excuses for making them up. It was fun while it lasted. Reflecting back i remember having terrible nerves before going up on stage and wondering why the hell was i putting myself through this state of anxiety.

I am writing this from Edinburgh (about to attend a meeting up here) - i am at my sister's house staying with her two kids - part of the joy has been making up crazy stories with my niece and nephew - i give them some options at bed time for storytelling - made up story or book story or something else? My little niece opts for 'something else' and tells me that she is going to read to me and her little brother and that we are 'not to help her unless she is really stuck'.

At the end of reading the 'pig pants' story my niece tells me she wants to do it again but this time she will start from the back of the book, 'is that okay?'. So we have the story again, starting at the end and ending up at the beginning.

What i am realy enjoying is learning about how my little niece is learning about her learning - and engaging her audience in the process to get feedback.

Expression and engagement is a great way to learn and get feedback - i am thinking about where i can exercise this. In the past i haven't liked collaborative or group learning because the pace can feel really slow but actually - the wider benefit of everyone learning together is quite enjoyable and structured well can bind a group of people who don't know one another. With my friends, my nephew/ niece and strangers that shared experience has bound us - perhaps more tightly with family and friends. The possibilities are intriguing.

Grand Central 3, virgin trains 0

I was in a rush, as usual, to get to where I needed to get. Before I got distracted by anything else I thought it would make a lot of sense to look up train times for getting from A (Manchester) to B (London), particularly as its a Sunday. So – I check virgin trains website – no direct trains – the only route that comes up is to travel further North to York and then catch a train to Kings Cross.

I try another link a friend uses – thetrainline.com it proposes that I travel to Rugby, get a bus and then another train from somewhere else. I don't fancy the idea of getting a replacement bus. Much rather go for services that are just up and running than some replacement service that will be figuring itself out as it goes along and dealing with confused, frustrated, anxious passengers.

I get a taxi to the train station, and have 9 minutes to get a ticket. Stupidly I buy a virgin train ticket Manchester to London without thinking. I reassure myself that it came up on their website. There's time to pass by the virgin train desk before getting on the York train.

'Hi what's the fastest route to London today'. She tells me a third option I had not come across going via Nuneaton. 'Oh' I express surprise, 'your website proposed going to York and then King Cross'.

'That's not a valid route'. 'Oh' I say, 'What time does the valid route get me to London?' She tells me '18.04'. 'Oh', I say, that's not the fastest route. What if I want the fastest route and thats getting on that train to York? The robot lady (bless her) repeats 'its not a valid route'. 'But as a person, who is in a hurry, can I buy a single to York and get on that train leaving in 6 minutes. 'Yes, I suppose so'.

If you are willing to pay a bit extra, there are faster routes on a Sunday. Having all of these three options will, I would imagine, ease congestion on the 'valid' route for this Sunday. Presumably people can decide what they'd like – stick to the rules and get there slower or make their own rules and get there quicker. Am on the train to York and so far so good (touch wood).

Arrived in York on time with plenty of time to get a ticket from York to London on the Grand Central Train Network. I noticed there were two trains going to London, one leaving at 15.31 and another leaving at 15.34. Confusion. I went to the ticket office. The lady, who worked for the train running at 15.34 told me – her train gets in at 17.49 and cost 83 pounds, whereas the 15.31 on the grandcentral route gets in at 17.34 and costs 34 pounds. I buy a single for the 15.31 and am now wondering why the hell two trains are running to the same destination only three minutes apart. And , for a sustainability perspective – how bad is this for the planet? What is the pivotal event or series of events in history that enabled this to happen? My history is not so good so I will have to resort to the internet.

Between trains I had plenty of time to get a coffee (decay soya latte) and pick up a cous cous salad and bottle of water – virgin trains don't exactly sell health food on their trains, although the coffee is fairtrade.

To my joy aboard the Grand Central – not only do they have comfy, wide seats and games you can play en route (I am sat with a chess board in front of me and also Cluedo) – but there is also free wireless – this is not something I am familiar with on Virgin Trains – where you have to pay for wireless access (so of course people buy mobile wireless access – smart people always find a way round something). Something else occurs to me – competition for customers has probably led to Grand Central having wider seats and free wireless. Could a next level of train service be socially enterprising? Where every penny goes back into improving the service to the customer? If a train network had multiple benefits – what might that successful business look like to the traveller – faster, cheaper, reliable, healthier food options, entertainment?

Finally - the grand central train arrived ten minutes early... how often does that happen?

the gospel according to...

After talking to a friend who cheered me up, I came across a quote online somewhere that said something along the lines of 'a life is lived in the doing and its what you do that makes a difference'. I couldn't agree more. i haven't been looking after myself properly lately - and consequently got ill - lost my voice and have been in bed for the day (and on my day off as well). Today however, saturday, a new leaf was turned over. It started with discovering a sweet potato. i discovered it in the fridge and decided - today i am going to cook something using that sweet potato. Googling sweet potato dishes i came across a recipe It was joyously easy and quick to follow - i am not that keen on too many carrots in dishes and didn't have any in the fridge so i added some frozen soya beans instead of carrots. I also added less liquid as suggested by others and less wine (and a bit less cheese - cos it can't be that healthy and it belonged to my housemate!).

There is plenty for tomorrow. Am watching pier pasolini's 'Gospel according to st matthew' - am really enjoying it where usually its the kind of film that would really annoy me - but the soundtrack is unusual - and includes billie holiday singing 'sometimes i feel like a motherless child'. It has brought the bible alive and its relevance in terms of 'how to live' by ten simple principles. I would probably replace the first three with 'to thine own self be true'. What's remarkable about the film is its sense of realness. Jesus is kickass to his people - scornful of them and their greedy, stubborn ways - spitting at them 'its easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than it is for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven'. How much do we need to hear that right now?! It struck me at the beginning the very idea of a man able to take on another woman's child, raising him in the knowledge that he would be a leader of people. Protecting him, loving him. This is the birthplace of humanity, loving another as you would your own family, so that he might have the opportunity to make a difference.

Interestingly i have come across this concept of 'predestination' which Lutherans (which i was christened into) believe in: that god, before creation, god determined the fate of the universe throughout space and time. I guess this is why my pastor was so displeased with me wanting to study genetics. learn summit everyday! from sweet potato to religion and so to sleep. night. x

Take off your glasses...

I am concerned, worried, about the cultural lenses with which we are forced to view the world depending on how we choose to look at the world and who is and isn't at the table when we choose to look. My eyes ache in fact. I went to an event - the format was a debate - i was at a government event a few weeks ago with the same format - a debate. At both events i got this creeping sense that a debate sets up the frame for argument in a way that sets up an artifice of us and them, simultaneusly creating positions against which opposites seek to protect and attack. Debate forces us (and them) into discussions about polar opposites - black and white, terrorism and security, able bodied and disabled - which are probably artificial but help the mind think it is making sense and seeing things clearly. It moves us away from possibility and from much needed fresh ideas and divergent thinking.

What are we missing when we engage in this way? Everything in between - everything that cannot be defined and is unknown (but necessary - the vernacular and the tacit) and crucially depends on the presence of the other. There is something about saying 'we' that conjoins and circumvents 'us and them' like we are all included and a neccessary part of a whole rather than a cake sliced in two or multiple versions of ethnicities, class and gender and other others that are yet to be defined. How can we belong to a whole rather than these artificial fragments? where is home - where we are treated as equals and the assumption is that everyone has something to contribute.

When the debate ended 'we' (who were frustrated at the slicing of the cake) started thinking about what's missing - what would we want to see/hear/ participate in - what can we bring to the table collectively that binds us rather than divides us?

I have been thinking about this a great deal lately and experiencing it in everyday life and getting surprised again and again that it keeps resurfacing. One of the things i noticed was to do with language. When i make up stories for my niece i always have her as the main character in the story - which thrills her - i have her full attention - the main character bears her name and she listens intently and asks me to tell the story again and again (mutant versions abound). Other times i tell a story and she acts out the main character and what the main character does - takes on that characters persona - and we fall about laughing as the character that she inhabits starts influencing the story and making my storytelling flow in other directions that i could never have imagined - a kind of call and response collaboration that draws on her memory and mine, that resonates with us both because we are both participating and creating in the moment. Anyhow - i thought i'd touch base with her and retell some elements of the story by writing to her and in writing to her i realised a dichotomy - when i write 'i', i mean me, when she reads 'i' she will assume i am talking about her. there is this dichotomy of 'i' and 'you' in language - and i wonder at what point do kids make the connection of being able to unconsciously switch between not understanding this and to understanding and adopting it and seamlessly integrating it into reading and writing. In being the teller of a story from a first person perspective, the 'i' is the owner and the 'you' is the listener. how often in conversations when we say 'you' do we actually mean 'i'?

The artist, katya sander, who was on the panel at the last event articulated something around this in her artistic creation of some badges with the words 'if you read this, i'll give it to you (but then you must wear it)' written on them. Through exchange of the badge from one person to another there is a switch of the 'i' and the 'you'. But i think this was lost in the frame of the dialogue in which she was constantly asked to tell us about how things were in denmark like she was representative of the whole of denmark - as one guy remarked in the audience - "i feel we are falling into a trap" and avoiding the real and interesting areas for discussion by this distraction of talking about Britishness and white and black. And the good ideas die a death as we try to understand the increasing smart questions that people pose (and subsequently have to explain because they are theories that they want to disprove and the question is a trick or a trap that the 'asker' hopes the panel might fall into). Indeed they were all trapped.

Anyway it gave me some ideas about 'who is the other' and actually is the other just a reflection of me and all that i might be and might not be. I wonder which languages get around this dilemma. I think maths circumvents the problem through logic and reasoning but i need a mathematician to back this up.

I think there is a connection in particle physics, conceptually at least, to the Higgs boson particle that is yet to be observed. Scientists think it exists but it hasn't been seen yet - and it begs the question - and by thinking about that conundrum, by analogy, i have reached a question - is the mechanism with which we are trying to see the whole picture truly objective or is there something about the act of 'looking' that prevents us from seeing what is there? Time poses a problem here - how long can you be looking to ensure that you don't miss the thing that you are looking for and what if we just assume that it exists and is a necessary part of binding us together and allowing things to fall apart over time? how can we measure multiple interactions that all contribute to what happens next?

Maths, physics and storytelling - different ways to explore and explain the universe. I wonder does a story equate to a theory? Somehow we can be receptive to a story - it can bypass our intellect and we respond - a belly laugh might uncover a truth or proof of something we thought was there but had no evidence for. But who is counting the laughs? and who is laughing!?

Walking...

i am trying to walk more. Walking and thinking seem to go hand in hand for me. I noticed at the beginning of the year, one of my work colleagues and i used to have great ideas springing out of conversations as we walked from one part of Manchester to another.

I have been reading a great book (so far) on walking, i came across it at the cornerhouse bookshop in manchester. Of course, as with most books that i start (and never finish) i initially got distracted and swept up into some other project or work-related thing and forgot all about the book until i started walking again.

last weekend i was walking - the ball of my foot is still sore from it - but it was a great walk so when i rub the sore foot the pain it elicits is tinged with the pleasurable memory of the walk.

So what was the book (Wanderlust: a history of walking by Rebecca Solnit) and what was the walk (East London in the world as part of six billion ways). I was reading the book on the train to london for the six billion ways. I had no idea that walking was an option on the agenda and it was by far the most interesting bit of the all day event.

Artist activist, Shane Solanki who took us on a walk to discover 'the radical history of East London, from anti-slavery struggles of the 18th century to anti-racism in the 1970s; from the fight for women's votes to the threat of fascism; and most recently, fights against 'gentrification' and the Olympics'.

Now, i am from the eastend and i am ashamed to say a lot of it was news to me - not the history but the spaces and the places and the detail - the interconnected stories inhabiting not one street but many and the idea that people from the 'slum' did some amazing stuff that still has its legacy today. Centuries worth of stories unfolded and flashed into the future and the present as we walked and talked and listened and looked. Time was not linear it was circular - with connections made on a multitude of levels. All my senses were engaged and additional treats for a writer's eye were uncovered en route. I will post some of the walk - talk to give a better insight into what i am trying to articulate and what needs to be imported from the east end to manchester - another slum city, borne off the back of great industry and creativity and mashed up heritage. The manchester stories that are currently missing and need to be told and played back, remixed and revisited.

its that old adage - if you don't know where you've come from - how the hell do you know where you're going?

the story passed onto through another book, one that i have carried with me in my head and only understood consciously a couple of years ago when my father died was the quote on the inside cover of chinua achebe's book 'Things Fall Apart'. I could tell you the saying but it might be more fun to check it out...

Achebe says 'the power of the storyteller lies in his or her ability to appeal to the mind and reach beyond his or her particular circumstance and thus speak to different periods and generations; the good story teller is not bound by narrow political or personal concerns or even by the demands of specific historical moments.'

This resonates with me - and where i am right now - an interloper - flitting between two cities and learning and remembering from both so that i can eventually move on, feet aching, with many new stories to tell...

Moonlandings

What does Obama have in common with the moon landings? Today i learned something new about the space race and i need to check it out a bit more. Its intriguing actually to think that President Kennedy used the Space Programme to rebuild americacaca. Could we do the same in Manchester without a building a rocket? I wonder if an academic somewhere researching how Obama won the election. If can get people to rebuild america he might well be in with a chance.

Its the anniversary of the moon landings - timing might be right.

youtube - property is theft

Psst!

Yeh - over here. Why is it that something that can give you such joy suddenly gets taken away from you. Youtube man (or should i say google man) - all that money and they still can't sort it out so we can gain access to the worlds best (and worst) music. I am so nostaligic right now (for my beloved and horrendous eighties) and youtube gave me an 'in' to the past and now - now - those tunes and music videos have been pulled off youtube. A question: will we ever truly know our past if it is all subject to copyright? In the meantime i will keep searching ...

Travel - moving slow(er)

I came across a book of ideas for enjoying travel in a more experimental way.



One of my favourite suggestions is to just follow the street signs until you can go no further. An Oxford academic tried this and found himself in a place he never even knew existed, off the beaten track and out of the town of the gown of university spires.

I think the same type of game might be adopted for getting out of bed - go left, left left - and i would just stay in the same spot - up against the wall and going nowhere fast.

Aside from that i would like to travel a lot slower - get on a train, a ship, a pigeon...

Sanctuary

Yesterday i had a day of celebration by total accident. I have been going out more and looking at stuff - exhibitions (interspecies at cornerhouse - catching delia the pig on her last day), theatre (Contradictions at Contact). I was on my way to the theatre and had an hour to kill on Oxford Road. I didn't fancy hanging out on a Saturday night in any dingy student bars, drinking for the sake of it and sitting alone in a throng of people - why - because that is lonely as hell. Crossing over from the student union bar i went into the Church - Holy Name - a catholic outfit. Inside, unsure of what to do, i watched as people came in and out, bowed to the alter, sat, prayed, crossed themselves and popped in and out of small rooms with small doors. It was intriguing, beautiful and restful. I didn't know the rules but could probably work them out. I picked up a service sheet and it was all in latin. Memories of loving latin at school came flooding back. I think i was pretty religious as a kid, confirmed and everything - i wanted to belong to the church but then one day the pastor (lutheran) told me that studying genetics at University and going to church didn't go together. Something had to go...

Manchester Twestival

Lucky star...

I was asked today "With the choice of anyone in the world, who would i like to have dinner with?"

This might well change with time but today, in my playful mood and seeking the nostalgic comfort of the 80s, it was Madonna, 1983, the night before she made this video. I would also hang out on set when they made the video, miming and failing miserably to master the dance steps and committing to memory the opening sequence to the video.

Hmm scratch that... perhaps it might be HOLIDAY - the dance moves are easier..

Song of the week...

I watched Mike Figgis' Stormy Monday this week and it brought me to this song which features on the soundtrack. No matter what anyone says about YouTUBE - it lets us peek into the past and re-find some very special moments...