Who is Nick?

Asking all my life.

  • What is Orality?

    Good question

    Since I’m going to say the word a lot, we might as well set the ground rules around it, eh? ( yes, I’m Canadian )


    “the quality of being oral or orally communicated”

    – the dictionary

    That’s it.

    Think of it as the verbal version of literate. I tried to play with language around all of this, and as you can see, it doesn’t seem to always pan out…

    Literal : Oral Literary : Oratory Literacy : Orality Literate : ??? What is the oral equivalent of literate? [ Given, I think verbal is the comprehension of words both oral and literal. That "said", it seems to be muddled a bit ]
    Literate : Oralite??? Let's try it in a sentence: "Literates and oralites have fundamental differences in what is considered 'logic'" Meh…

    but you get the gist, right?

    So what’s the big deal?

    The deal is when you see how the word is being used. It seems to have a good amount of baggage. Baggage that I’m going to ask you to throw away.

    Like religious baggage. Looking over Twitter’s #Orality,  from what I can tell, some use it when referring to the art form of a sermon and preaching, and some use it when discussing bringing the bible to the illiterate.  While there could be overlap with religion – I will not mean anything religious when I use the word.

    Then the academic baggage. A few of the “big wigs” (Harold Innis, Eric Havelock, Marshall McLuhan, and Walter J. Ong) have determined Orality and Literacy are in total opposition. These worlds were exclusive. Ong added some nuance defining terms like “oral residue” (yuck) or primal morality. He tried to give some complexity, but in the end, they felt you lost your orality the moment you became literate. All said and done, this also, is not what I mean.

    I believe it’s not as cut and dry. Like introverts and extroverts, it’s more fluid. Non-binary ( ooo I’ve got a thought around that too ).

    Fortunately, in later years there have been more arguments supporting my current use and belief of Orality.

    “orality is not what is spoken, but what allows one to speak.”

    Donald Wesling and Tadeusz Slawek, Literary Voice: The Calling of Jonah, 159

    The same could be said that literacy is not what is written, but what allows one to read.

    It’s a skill. Perhaps, once learned, becomes more…

    Right, and…

    So where I’m going to be going? Orality and an oral mind make a big difference in our world in ways I’m not sure we fully understand.

    Originally posted on Substack

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  • 3 Words

    I’ve done a few different methods to help give a year a barometer for success. Most years I’ve stuck with only 1 word. But I’ve always watched Chris Brogan’s 3 Words method – and I’m going to give it a shot this year.

    For those curious to know more. Here’s the run down.

    BE.

    I’ve always struggled and consistently ask myself “Who is nick?” hence the domain name. This obsession with self-awareness and assessment perhaps has taken me out of the world instead of being in it.

    I want to accept and just “be”. To “be” in the world. To “be” me and not try and justify, or assess, or ask why do I like all these different things, or try an make them fit into something. Just “be”.

    EXPOSED.

    Why not expose? Because that “d” at the end gives it a naked context.

    To continue on the same path as “be,” not only do I want to accept myself, but I also want that person to participate in the world, and my self-censor is strong.

    Maybe I need to be uncomfortable and raw in the world. Learn to have that small pang of fear with everything I do – like walking onto a stage.

    CREATE.

    No matter what. I am a creative person. Look back at all my projects and blogs. All the things I make. This is not just a reminder that I should “create”, but I should create no matter what’s going on in my life.

    While I’m not going to make one of those “I will make something every day,” declarations, I am going to use this to strive for that. And if I can combine it with “Be” and “Exposed” – maybe something might happen.

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  • Shameless Plug: Voice Demo

    I don’t often do shameless plugs, but this video I did for my day job, I’m pretty happy with. Got to brush off the V/O BCIT radio days.

    BTW: I’m not opposed to any V/O side gigs…. just sayin

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  • 9,999 pieces of crap

    I like the way Tom Webster thinks. In his latest newsletter, he talks about the “fail forward” mentality.

    Here’s a phrase that’s used to promote failing fast

    Edison made 10,000 failed versions of the light bulb.

    Here’s what it should be

    Edison made 9,999 crappy lightbulbs and shipped 1.

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  • #Movember 2020

    With this year being extra hard for mental health, decided to Reverse Mo. So I don’t freak out a small boy, I’m going to shave a little off every day in support. #movember

    Support the Mo
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  • And we’re back

    Still in progress. History will come back.

    Update [2020-10-25]: ? History.

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  • The WordPress Yo-Yo

    It’s that time again. Github and gitpages you’ve been great. But I’m lazy. Lazier than lazy lately.

    So it’s time to head on back to wordpress. I’ll be doing this slowly. So chances are, this site will flicker and flub, maybe even a blorp to a final kapow!

    Thanks for all the fish.

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  • Mac Meet Ubuntu. Ubuntu Meet my old Mac.

    Take an old Mac (< 2013) wipe it clea and run ubuntu. Check.

    Giving new life to what could have been an old paper weight, awesome!

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  • Don’t give what you “need”. Give what’s needed.

    Hello, new-ish/old-ish medium look

    Would you look at that. Medium has rolled out it’s new-ish/old-ish layout. Very reminiscent of classic blog layout. Perfect for the simple, the irreverent, and the unimportant posts like this one.

    But sometimes that’s exactly what’s needed. Perhaps we didn’t “need” more. We didn’t “need” fancier. We didn’t “need” crazy layouts. Just scroll and read.

    Consider that when thinking about what you want to say. There’s what you think you “need” to say. What people think they “need” to read. And somewhere in the middle, is the magical, what’s needed.

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  • My Personality (2020 Edition)

    The past year has been a tough one. Let’s distract myself for a moment to see how my personality test holds up to last years.

    Your type is: INFP

    “Questor”. High capacity for caring. Emotional face to the world. High sense of honor derived from internal values. 4.4% of total population.

    Introverted (I) 67.74% / Extroverted (E) 32.26%
    Intuitive (N) 82.14% / Sensing (S) 17.86%
    Feeling (F) 73.33% / Thinking (T) 26.67%
    Perceiving (P) 80% / Judging (J) 20%

    Type 1 Orderliness |||||| 30%
    Type 2 Helpfulness |||||||||||||||||| 73%
    Type 3 Image Awareness |||||||||||||| 53%
    Type 4 Individuality |||||||||||||||||| 80%
    Type 5 Rationality |||||||||| 33%
    Type 6 Cautiousness |||| 16%
    Type 7 Adventurousness ||||||||||||||| 66%
    Type 8 Aggressiveness |||||||||||| 46%
    Type 9 Calmness |||||||||||||||||| 73%

    Your main type is Type 4

    Your variant stacking is spsxso

    type score type behavior motivation
    4 24 I must be unique/different to survive.
    2 22 I must be helpful and caring to survive.
    9 22 I must maintain peace/calm to survive.
    7 20 I must be fun and entertained to survive.
    3 16 I must be impressive and attractive to survive.

    High level – still INFP Type 4 with the same variant. Lower level – I seemed to have taken some of my rationality and replaced with aggressiveness.
    I think we all are feeling it. That – and my kid is 2. You try and survive that without a little more aggressiveness.

    If you’re curious about yours, this was made using the Jung+Enneagram test.

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