fourworlds

Face Blind

Wed, 08 Feb 2012 10:20:57 -0500

After a lifetime of trouble recognizing people I’d met once or twice before, I finally realized I have a mild case of face blindness. This was brought home for me a couple weeks ago when my wife and I were working our way through Season 3 of The Wire. She made a comment about the scar on actor Michael K. Williams face. Of course, I said, “What scar?”

She thought I was joking. I’d not only seen him in 20+ episodes of The Wire, but also in two seasons of Boardwalk Empire. But I wasn’t joking. It actually took me a minute or two of focused attention to finally find the scar on a freeze framed close-up. Apparently, the reason I have trouble remembering faces is that my brain doesn’t perceive facial details very well. The good news is that I have a good story to go along with the blank look on my face when someone I don’t recognize greets me.

A 100 Word Story for Nancy

Sat, 31 Dec 2011 12:16:00 -0500

OUR ORIGIN STORY

First meeting:

Mark dared me to walk over to the waitress and greet her by name as if we’d met before.

I said, “Hi Nancy.”

She said, “I don’t know you. How do you know my name?”

I mumbled something about being a friend of Mark’s and retreated back to the bar with my tail between my legs.

First argument:

I said, “You always say that.”

She said, “I don’t always say anything. We only met three weeks ago.”

Six months later:

You have to marry a woman like that, right? If she’ll have you. She did.

On the question of my absence

Wed, 07 Dec 2011 13:56:40 -0500

On the question of my absence

A 100 Word Story on the anniversary of my birth

Sun, 16 Oct 2011 11:47:36 -0400

I can’t remember when my birthday stopped being something that felt important enough to lose sleep over. As a child, I stayed awake late into the night each Birthday Eve in anticipation of the new age. Although gifts, party and cake were ingredients in the stimulating mix, the overwhelming factor was the realization that dawn’s portal would transport me into some wondrous new level of being. Like the initiation into an elevated level of a mystical secret society, each milestone granted entry into an expanded universe of elevated privilege, opportunity and status. Today, it’s merely the anniversary of my birth.

From Wounded Knee to Wall Street: Columbus Day and Other Toxic Myths

Mon, 10 Oct 2011 09:12:12 -0400

Have you ever wondered why the United States still celebrates a national holiday honoring the guy who initiated the genocide of the native American peoples? The man who sold girls into sexual slavery, burned escaped slaves alive, and had babies killed for dog food? I have. I’ve wondered about it quite a bit.

It seems to me that Columbus Day’s continued place on the U.S. calendar is not an oversight. We sweep the holocaust under the rug so that underlying myths, such as Manifest Destiny and Social Darwinism can continue to justify today’s more civilized forms of injustice, exploitation and inhumanity.

Holidays such as Columbus Day and Thanksgiving are threads in a vast cultural tapestry stretching from San Salvador to Plymouth Rock, from Wounded Knee to Wall Street, and from Capitalism to Corporatocracy. National myths such as the Horatio Alger story still resonate today, as evidenced in this recent statement by Republican presidential candidate, Herman Cain:

“Don’t blame Wall Street, don’t blame the big banks, if you don’t have a job and you’re not rich, blame yourself. It is not a person’s fault if they succeeded, it is a person’s fault if they failed.”

I dedicate the following song and video to the 99% Movement, which is single-handedly working to excise these type of toxic myths from the American heart, mind and soul.

Columbus Day
by David Elfanbaum

They set sail across the water for country and for queen
To find a new horizon that no white man had seen
They brought with them their armor, their cannon and disease
And laid waste to a people that had thrived for centuries

We built this country on their blood and their bones
We found our destiny and took their lives and homes
So why do we celebrate Columbus Day
We found a New World and we took their world away

They set sail across the ocean fleeing country and king
For their religious freedom they would do most anything
They came to this great land and claimed it for their kind
With guns and broken treaties that have brought us to this time

We built this country on their blood and their bones
We found our destiny and took their lives and homes
So why do we celebrate Thanksgiving Day
We found a New World and we took their world away

Now we fly across the oceans with stealth and guile we creep
To maximize our profit and go where labor’s cheap
With lawyers, guns and money we take what we please
Leaving fast food restaurants in exchange for clear cut trees

We built this country on their blood and their bones
We found our destiny and took their lives and homes
So why do we celebrate Columbus Day
We found a New World and we took their world away

Performed by fourworlds

Source video from the Prelinger Archives

It’s sad to say that this twenty year old song I wrote ...

Thu, 06 Oct 2011 14:00:19 -0400

It’s sad to say that this twenty year old song I wrote during the Presidential election campaign of 1992 is even more applicable today than it was then.

I was inspired to revive it by the Occupy Wall Street movement. The video is composed of clips from Occupy Wall Street video out on YouTube and some old footage from the Prelinger Archives.

Greed (Let ‘em Starve)

Why should my hard earned dollars go to feed some shirker’s kid?
Maybe watching their belly swell would teach them what they did.
If they can’t feed their family working sixty hours a week,
Let ‘em work 100, there’s no god-given right to sleep.

Let ‘em Starve!

There’s no such thing as prejudice, everyone gets their fair shot.
Look at all the laundries and restaurants the boat people all got.
If those bums living on the dole would just get off their lazy cans,
They could all be executives or empty my trash cans.

Let ‘em Starve!

So if you’re sick and poor just go away,
Cause you don’t deserve a doctor if you cannot pay.
If your daddy’s poor and you mamma’s on crack,
You should have the moral fibre to stay on the track.
If you’re handicapped or crazy that’s not my concern,
Don’t go looking for a handout, don’t have money to burn.
So for all you losers, it may sound cruel,
But keep your lazy genes out of my gene pool.

Let ‘em Starve.

NYMWARS Comics. This is the e-book version from issuu.com and...

Thu, 25 Aug 2011 11:33:10 -0400

NYMWARS Comics. This is the e-book version from issuu.com and will update automatically with new additions.

Little Google Boxes: A Nymwars Protest Song. A multi-identity...

Wed, 24 Aug 2011 09:03:00 -0400

Little Google Boxes: A Nymwars Protest Song. A multi-identity Botgirl/fourworlds collaboration. For those of you unfamiliar with the issue, there are links to dozens of great articles here.

A 100 Word Sci-Fi Story inspired by the Nymwars

Tue, 23 Aug 2011 11:29:41 -0400

A 100 Word Sci-Fi Story inspired by the Nymwars

NYMWARS Comics, a set by botgirlq on Flickr. Been having fun...

Wed, 17 Aug 2011 11:14:00 -0400

NYMWARS Comics, a set by botgirlq on Flickr.

Been having fun teasing Google over their “real name” policy. Thought I’d cross post this from the Botgirl Questi site.

Where’s Nibbler?

Mon, 25 Jul 2011 11:53:45 -0400

Where’s Nibbler?

This is the presentation Bill Howard and I gave at the 2011...

Mon, 09 May 2011 14:09:55 -0400

This is the presentation Bill Howard and I gave at the 2011 Association of Change Management Professionals Conference. It provides an overview of Asynchrony’s change management work supporting the USTRANSCOM Corporate Services Vision initiative, with a focus on the experiential ChangeViz workshops that were held for executive and management level stakeholders.

Sketchnotes from Sherry Campbell’s presentation at...

Wed, 04 May 2011 14:14:47 -0400

Sketchnotes from Sherry Campbell’s presentation at Association of Change Management Professionals Conference

Sketchnotes from presentation by Anne Morisseau at the...

Tue, 03 May 2011 15:40:08 -0400

Sketchnotes from presentation by Anne Morisseau at the Association of Change Management Professionals Conference

Sketchnotes from presentation by Liz Guthridge at Association of...

Tue, 03 May 2011 15:37:58 -0400

Sketchnotes from presentation by Liz Guthridge at Association of Change Management Professionals Conference

Sketchnotes of Tim Creasy’s presentation at the...

Tue, 03 May 2011 11:40:11 -0400

Sketchnotes of Tim Creasy’s presentation at the Association of Change Management Practitioners Conference

Sketchnotes from presentation by Daryl Conner At Association of...

Tue, 03 May 2011 10:38:01 -0400

Sketchnotes from presentation by Daryl Conner At Association of Change Management Professionals Conference

Sketchnotes from Michael Nestor’s presentation at the...

Mon, 02 May 2011 18:35:15 -0400

Sketchnotes from Michael Nestor’s presentation at the Association of Change Management Professionals Conference.

Sketchnotes from presentation by Teddy Frank and Chris Whakey at...

Mon, 02 May 2011 16:01:50 -0400

Sketchnotes from presentation by Teddy Frank and Chris Whakey at ACMP Conference.

Sketchnotes from presentation by Jacoline Beann at ACMP...

Mon, 02 May 2011 15:59:59 -0400

Sketchnotes from presentation by Jacoline Beann at ACMP Conference.