Who is Nick?

Asking all my life.

  • FOMO, YOLO, and FOLO?

    Time has opened up for me; so has my ability to keep focusing on my exploration of Ong’s characteristics of an oral culture.

    Today’s target is

    Aggregative rather than analytic

    Linguistic Formulas

    “The elements of orally based thought and expression tend to not be so much simple integers as clusters of integers…” He goes on to explain it’s clusters & phrases. His examples are “not the soldier, but the brave soldier not the princess, but the beautify princess.”

    Oral cultures tend to be consistent in using consistent descriptive adjectives. Not simply saying a soldier or princess. This doesn’t exclude the opportunity for an alternate adjectives such as, his examples, “braggart soldier” or “unhappy princess” but the default position is this aggregate term and default aggregate repeated over and over until normalized.

    These might not really ring so true today in terms of simple descriptive adjectives. However when you expand the language to longer phrases, and acronyms, things start to become interesting.

    • YOLO – You only live once
    • FOMO – fear of missing out
    • MAGA – make america great again
    • GOAT – greatest of all time
    • BFF – best friends forever
    • LMAO – laugh my ass off
    • LOL – laugh our loud.
    • ROFL – roll on the floor laughing
    • PITA – pain in the ass
    • TMI – too much information
    • NSFW – not safe for work

    All of these can be used otherwise yet we don’t.

    I could reveal some thing intimate and use alternate words, but I don’t. I say TMI, keeping the phrase intact and crystalized.

    Each acronym or phrase cannot be altered. FOLO is not a thing.

    … rather than analytic

    Now comes the analytic part. For Ong, the argument was simply put that “Without a writing system, breaking up thought – that is, analysis – is a high risk process.” He then drops-the-mic with a quote from Levi-Stauss, “the savage [i.e. oral] mind totalizes.”

    Essentially he’s saying that oral thought cannot piece meal a concept. It can not look at something in isolation but must have context, inter-connection, situation, as a whole. Saying “a friend” would be like…

    It would be an unfinished sentence to an oral mind and require the formula and some form of aggregate language.

    Is that to say, if I say “best friend” would an oral mind place it in the default position and complete the phrase adding “forever”? If I were to mention “laughing” would there be mental chaos because someone isn’t sure if I’m doing it “out loud” or “rolling on the floor” from it?

    Perhaps the term itself is negated and ignored? Thinking, “they aren’t really friends because Nick never clarified it was best or forever.” Or, “He didn’t ‘literally’ laugh because he didn’t say it was out loud.”

    Maybe for the aliterate a little analysis is allowed? But perhaps not too much.

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  • We are deep in “it”

    Photo by Mike Erskine on Unsplash

    Welcome back to the exploration of Ong’s characteristics of an Oral Culture. Today, We’re going to tackle…

    Empathetic and Participatory Rather than Objectively Distanced

    “For an oral culture learning or knowing mean achieving close, empathetic, communal identification with the known… Writing separates the knower from the known.”

    Meaning that literacy can give distance and objectivity to a topic, to a perspective, to a way of life.

    Reading a book ,the thoughts of someone else meld with our own. We get to wear their skin for a moment in our silence.

    Writing, is an externalization of thought. Seeing our words on paper or screen vents them from our interior creating a reflective mirror; a recording – it’s us, but not. Through it, we have the opportunity to be critical of ourselves, like a mirror that lets me be critical of some of my t-shirt choices.

    And as we delve into our oral nature… we remove these moments of distance.

    We entrench ourselves into thoughts and opinions. We build up walls and listen only to the songs we know, read only the things we already read.

    Does it feel like the world is being objective?

    I can tell you it doesn’t for me. If feels, to me, that people are hunkering into their camps and doubling down.

    We blame social media. That it has given us our rose coloured glasses. It force feeds us biased media & ads base on demographics, personas, geolocation and algorithms. It does so to the point where we don’t see anything outside of our little bubble.

    But… perhaps…

    Perhaps even if it did, would we choose to see/hear it? Aliterate means we can read ( a little ) and choose not to. We could learn about someone else yet, like reading, choose not to.

    Perhaps we are all losing our objectivity to even care?

    Debate requires objectivity. Debate requires some sense of distance from a topic to allow ourselves to be open.

    Instead, as Ong points out, as an oral culture we start to identify with the known. We become the perspective and anything else, becomes more and more foreign to us.

    The Actor

    Is the actor ( or performer ), the only one who has the capacity and the tools in an oral or aliterate culture to truly step in and out of someone else’s perspective? They have, or are working on the ability to empathize and identify with someone foreign. They walk, talk and even breath like someone else for a moment. The goods ones, in my opinion, push themselves further and further from themselves.

    Is that part of our collective fascination and admiration of them?

    I’m going to have to go off and ponder that like this for a few moments…

    AI photo prompt: “picture of someone, shadow only, dramatically thinking alone on a stage in front of an empty theater”

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  • Weeknotes 2025-06-06

    Photo by blueberry Maki on Unsplash
    • Up and down and up and down
    • a flip; a pissed away day
    • twiddle the thumbs
    • clean the house and never succeed
    • stare at a squirrel climbing a tree
    • reconsider mostly everything
    • journal, blog, post
    • feel great about the time I have
    • sad about my indecision and paralysis
    • spend too much time on things
      • what else am I doing?
    • hunt for something to do

    That’s been my week.

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  • Governance and Orality

    I’ve been digging into a thought for the past week starring out into the void wondering what to do next.

    With Decentralized/Federated Social Media, I’m seeing a lot of discussions on how do we want to run ourselves? Ethical, rights, power and other conversations all around and to do with Governance.

    Before I do continue, here’s something I use as my framework

    My Web Pyramid

    Like Maslow’s Pyramid, here’s how I picture the evolution of the web.

    Web 1 – Media (publishing)
    Web 2 – Communication* (2 way communication)
    Web 3 – Economies
    Web 4 – Governance
    Web 5 – Citizenship

    And like Maslow’s theory, these layers aren’t independent, and we are always in flux as we go up and down depending on social need.

    * Update: I previously have called Web 2 “Community”, but I’m rejigging that thought a bit.

    Decentralized?

    Could this pyramid be more about a decentralized, autonomous, or independent web? Could this be about scale and accessibility? 🤷

    Not just the ability to publish, but at an economical scale that it’s easy and cheap for one to publish. Just like it’s easy to discuss, or now… make your own digital currency.

    The structures of Governance

    I’ve started investigating several types of governance. Smart Contracts, Decentralized Autonomous Organizations (DAOs), Coops/Unions/Guilds. There are so many ways we’ve governed ourselves.

    Here’s a nice summary of options in 2 parts:

    Worldbuilding: 36 Types of Government (Part 1)
    Worldbuilding: 36 Types of Government (Part 2)

    Tech to help?

    One of the cons in all of governance is the time and effort. And that’s where I’m curious about the tech that could help. Where could it help? But some of these are it’s tricky and at scale costly.

    • AI
      • Summarize all the legalese
      • Get updates to legislation
      • Keep everyone aligned
      • Ask for advise and next steps
      • Seek feedback from
    • Decentralized and transparent ( open )
      • polling and decision making
      • identity (this one is not really a can we… it’s more like which methods)
      • law & legislation management

    Creative Commons but for governance

    Creative Commons helps me understand copyright in a way that made it accessible. It gave me tools and options I never thought of. Governance feel the same in a way.

    • Where does one start?
    • What are the options?
    • How do I pick methods and models?
    • Can I cherry pick or modify?
    • Is there a common resource option to discuss
    • Can we make it a bit more relatable?

    What it all means with Orality

    As we shift into an aliterate world we’re going to need to all understand governance a lot more.

    When England reached a literate tipping point ( 50% ) the monarchy changed dramatically. At the time of the formation of The United States it was most literate societies on the planet.

    Our governance will shift dramatically again. It’s time we have a good foundation or understanding when it does.

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  • Weeknotes 2025-05-26

    AKA: More like bi-monthly.. now with the option of daily

    I’ve been temporarily laid off. You could call it a furlough ( though no one ever used that term ).

    A string of bad luck in the world of startups. They’ll call me back if they can. We just don’t know when.

    Oh whoa is me… boo hoo boo hoo.

    Photo by Pawel Janiak on Unsplash

    My cheese was moved

    If anyone knows me, I’m the world of “who moved my cheese“, I’m not the one who’s sitting back. I lean forward and move.

    It’s time to ( in no particular order ):

    • clean the house ( seriously… I’m going into housekeeper dad mode )
    • wallow for a teensy moment while watching some Sci-fi
    • ponder the mysteries of universe and reconsider the place I want to be in it
    • Write ( aka this blog )
    • Give’er 🇨🇦

    Any plans?

    Not yet. After all it’s only day 1. I will trust my golden horseshoe and whim.

    • What does that look like right now 🤷
    • What does that look like next week 🤷
    • What does that look like next month 🤷
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  • Weeknotes 2025-03-22

    Correction: Monthnotes 2025-03-22.

    All that energy last month to mix it up, took me down. I was doing ok but then snap – damn you ADHD!

    I, of course haven’t done nothing, just different things:

    • Convert a newer/older laptop to Ubuntu
    • Remembered Drupal; saw they were trying to make a shift to simplify ( no doubt from all the “wordpress hi jinks” ) and started to remember how powerful it was when I replaced my college radio station’s site with it… that was a fun couple years.
    • Lot’s of work, and internal work weeknotes, with the hopes that someone, oh someone, will go on the ride with me. But, it’s just me sitting alone in the park.
    • Oh ya, and fighting f*!#’n mice! The scourge of Langley!

    It’s insanity! My house is a mix of towels under door jams, everything is in a box. At first you’re like, wow it’s organized, and then you’re like, which box was that in, and then your like, F!*#’n boxes!

    I’m not really much of an handy man, so the idea of figuring out what to do, is kind of super monumental at the moment.

    Then you think you’ve done enough, and then after the kids go to bed 4 of them come out of nowhere and run around like crazy teens, while your wife looses her mind, and the rest of the night, your trying to figure out not only how to get these guys out, but also do it in a way that your partner, who is now curled up in a ball mumbling “make them go away”, doesn’t fully break.

    Photo by Ryan Stone on Unsplash

    So, monthnotes it may have to be while all the energy I have left is trying to deal with that.

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  • Ong’s Oral Culture Recap

    Where was I? I’ve forgotten where I was in reflecting on Ong’s Psychodynamics of Orality with our current culture. So this recap is partly for me as it is you.

    I hope you can see where I’m going with this.

    It was coined “secondary orality” because I don’t think anyone realized how close could it get to a primary oral culture?

    In the thick of academia and logic, it’s hard to imagine. However, with recent events unfolding before our eyes, I think we’re realizing, perhaps it’s closer that we thought.

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  • Weeknotes 2025-02-22

    Now with Shit Goggles!

    I’m usually a happy-go-lucky look-on-the-bright-side-of-life kinda guy, but seems like not been so much.

    My wife had to have a hard talk with me.

    And now, boy oh boy do I hear it. The back handed comments, the “sure this is good, but….” amendments to every sentence.

    So, what do I do? These things feel a little glued on right now. So I’m going to focus on the small things. The things I can change. I’m going to break a pattern or two, ever so slightly.

    Breaking patterns, even the smallest pattern, by the fewest of moments, means you can change the big things.

    It’s a twist on the classic making your bed speech.

    Hold off on picking up your phone for 20seconds once in the morning, then tomorrow you can wait 22; then 30; then a minute; then 5; then 15; then 30; then an hour; then longer.

    Go to bed 1 minute earlier.

    Get up 10 minutes earlier

    Sit on the opposite side of the couch.

    Instead of doing X – try doing Y, just once a day.

    And when my patterns can change, hopefully the shit can crack a little, and a little more until it rolls away, and I can get to that happy-go-lucky look-on-the-bright-side-of-life kinda guy.

    Oh ya – and I was inspired by Derek Sivers’s now page so, I have one too now.

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  • Weeknotes 2025-02-07

    Way things are going, it’s been more bi-weekly updates. But the thing with weeknotes, remind myself, that’s ok. Keep Calm and Post on.

    Laravel & Statamic

    I’ve really been reading more and digging into Laravel, specifically Statamic.

    I’ve been looking for a foundation to do my own ActivityPub “thing”. I have my own ideas on what it can do, should do, and with a plugin.. maybe… 🤔

    Other ActivityPub thoughts

    I don’t want to re-invent the wheel, there’s a lot of really good foundational apps already in the wild. WP’s ActivityPub plugin is fine. I also really like what’s going on with Ghost. But, Statamic and Known have caught my eye from an infrastructure perspective.

    • Statamic being having more jazz hands, flare, and a very vocal and fun loving community
    • Known having a really portable and rock solid underbelly and foundation.

    Reading through the ActivityPub specs, there’s a lot of really interesting possibilities, however right now, it feels like projects are mostly staying in their own lanes. Taking a smaller lane approaches, which makes total sense. However, I really want to “play” with the whole specification; more extreme possibilities, like IntransitiveActivity:

    • Replace Last.fm scrobble with something in ActivityPub
    • If we’re going old school, Fouresquare check-in’s.
    • The Quantified Self all via ActivityPub

    But more than that – I’m imagining a more monolithic app rather than micro-service approach to it all. One that doesn’t need fancy cloud hosts or only a hand full of hosts offer support for crazy languages ( not that I can’t set those thing up… ). I just want to sftp it on a classic host and go from there.

    But as always no time

    Yet as always, I am bound by a 3 years old and 6 year old that rule my world ( btw: I love that they do ). I’m still struggling to find a balance to get some “me” time. And when I do, being at a computer is not always what I want – I’m on it all day after all.

    So hey, if you you ever want to chat more with me, ask away on the socials. Want to take it on yourself and beat me to it? Who’s got two thumbs and can beta test. Have at it.

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  • Weeknotes 2025-01-24

    Noticed I missed last week did you?

    “the void in your mind when you forget to do something because you’re so overwhelmed”

    It’s been that kinda few weeks where one gets sucked into the suck of the web. I’m Canadian, I have a lot of hope, but man… that hope is being tested for sure. I think we need to come up with some other name for doom scrolling… it’s not so much doom as WTF.

    I’ve been trying to pick the pieces up from my last weeknotes. I had a nice hiatus celebrating my Wife’s Birth Week ( yup a whole week here, full of zany 3yr & 6yr old ideas for how to celebrate ). Topping off with a great no-kids bday party which opened a window just a little bit in my immune system for me to then be smote down by some good awful bug. One that taunts you be being healthy just enough during the day to try and work or feel really guilty for not, and then when the sun sets, the beast is released in a rage of heat and chills.

    So, in the end, those pieces I’ve been trying to pick up off the ground, pieces of my ego, hope, drive… ya, those are mostly still on the ground being gently shuffled over by a dirty slipper to make a path to my bed.

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