Thanks to the world famous Phil Jones.

 6/10/2012; 8:17:53 PM.

I saw Prometheus this weekend, and liked it.

I also read the NY Times review, and completely agree with it.

It's a nice movie, goes slowly and has lush visuals, good use of 3D, and there's lots to entertain. But it ends a little roughly, I hoped for more, to be left with something to think about. But that doesn't happen.

Also I was hoping the old man was played by Peter O'Toole (you'll see why) but not.

 6/10/2012; 1:08:48 PM.

Quick note to link back to an earlier post, and my application to present rivers and linkblogging at this year's ONA meeting in SF, Sept 20-22.

A little background...

Blogging and aggregators were innovations ten-plus years ago, but the product categories haven't stopped evolving. Much of that has been inside Twitter and Facebook but these are awkward places to do journalism, and it's a problem if those become the sole channel for the distribution fo news. They're too easily shut down by governments, financiers, or just the people who run them, whose interest may, in the long term, not be a good match with the news orgs that depend on them.

I have developed my own software in this area, new stuff, that's completely connected up to Twitter, but here's the key point -- it still works without them. So if there should be an outage, anyone who publishes their link flow the way I do, using RSS and a simple bridge to Twitter, we will stay on the air, but those who rely exclusively on Twitter could have problems.

I would like to come talk about rivers and linkblogging at #ONA12. I've talked at ONA before. At the fifth meeting in Hollywood, on the keynote panel with Joe Trippi and Arianna Huffington. And last year, Jay Rosen and I did a podcast from the meeting in DC.

This is an important year of change for publishing. There are new possibilities that I think the ONA members should be aware of. It's a good time to have a look at what's possible.

 6/10/2012; 12:46:06 PM.

When I was in my late thirties I had an awakening that's not uncommon for people that age. I realized that the family I came from was not like all other families. And that things that happened in my childhood that seem strange or painful were not normal, or okay. Or possible to bury. And that they were responsible for me having lots of very negative ideas about myself.

I didn't have a choice but to confront these issues. They were front and center in my life. And I got help, and did a lot of work, and wasn't able to rid myself of my demons, because I don't think that actually can happen, but I did learn how to talk to them. And make them feel unwelcome. Put them in their place.

I don't want to go into details, because that's not what this piece is about. Instead it's the realization that the work never stops. The things that press your buttons are still out there. And they're doing their thing, and we're basically on our own to resist the downward spiral that comes when you give in to them and let them dominate your being. You know you want to do it. There's a lot of comfort in the pain they offer. But you know it doesn't end well. So you want to resist.

A technique my teacher offered was to first project the demon on the people who probably gave it to you. My parents. I would have a waking dream, deliberately, where I dump a big steaming bowl of spaghetti on their heads (with tomato sauce!) and lock them in the bathroom, saying I want you to think about this, young man and young lady. Then I would go about my business (still in the dream) chuckling while thinking of them in the bathroom crying and feeling unhappy about the spaghetti and being locked up. The most important thing is that when they are locked up they can't fuck with me. And it's a reminder that they aren't real. (A gentle and fun reminder, not an order or edict.) My parents are no longer the menace they once were. Children acting out their misery, probably caused by their parents, and projecting it on their child. They're no longer a threat to me. But my little boy, the one inside me, the one who remembers, doesn't know this isn't still going on. At the first sign of trouble -- panic. And depression. And self-hatred. And well, lots of self-abuse like smoking and drugs.

Child abuse carries a stigma, like alchoholism. But we're addicts, and we need the same kind of support network. Someone to call to say something happened that's making me spin, and I need someone to talk with, just to connect with another adult, to help me take better care of myself. Note, it's not someone to care for you, but someone you can lean on, temporarily, to have that conversation where you reaffirm your self-love and adult competence to take care of any demons that might show up (the spaghetti and the bathroom with its wonderful lock).

Me, I've decided it's okay, just this once, to use my blog for that purpose.

 6/10/2012; 7:44:00 AM.