Gearing up, Q3 and Q4

Kind of fun seeing those eight or nine hits on a given blog post? At this point, I don't see a really good reason to post big, long form blog posts, for example, at five or ten posts a month.

I'm not a journalist.

And twitter has the benefit of the speed and engagement with a small audience.

A big project for me is really getting to know the Chicago area and it's history, which with access to really good local libraries on a daily basis, means I can focus really deeply on whatever research area I want to work in. That freedom on a daily basis is deeply satisfying.

My skill in writing right now is limited by experiential factors and so just reading massive amounts is a key goal for the next twelve months. I have the time and ability to just build something slowly and build it well. I need to get a few more of the posts in my draft pipeline finished here and if things change it will be updated here. My plans for this space are definitely in flux right now. 

The moral aspect of the creative individual, Intro

This is something I've been considering for a very long time in terms of useful work. To summarize somewhat broadly, "what moral and ethical duties does a creative person or an artisan in any field, science or industry or any broad field of endeavor have to oneself vs. the requirements of larger society?"

In one sense, we can say that any person who exhibits creativity is inherently unique and finding ways and means to enhance their creative output over the course of a lifetime is in the best interest of the creative individual and in what utility and quality that person can contribute to society? In the best case scenario, both of these vague and generalized entities benefit where maximum utility and maximum quality of life converge. This is a very idealized case but one that has been born out to a significant extent by the success of democratic legal frameworks and market capitalism in tandem, to a point.

Where the more general case from an ethical standpoint starts to become more interesting is where the individual diverges from society given that absence of a clear path to reasonable utility and quality of life? I think I want to give this line of inquiry more thought and get more deeply engaged in a series of posts, so I hope you will be patient while I refine my thinking on some of these questions?

-GJS

The Past Three Months, Q2, 2016

This post is sort of a follow on, now that I've arrived at a more stable schedule. In part, this is also to encourage accountability from myself in terms of what I've been dealing with and working on?

I'm also going to get into some of my reticence and a sense of the ambiguity of full, un-censored disclosure in a later post, but for right now, I want to establish a format where I post one of these every quarter or so and update goals or just explain why updating here has been erratic or what exactly is going on?

First off, it is probably fair to address the fact that this blog's url is "urbanengineering" and is written by an erratically employed Engineer with Engineer in Training (EIT) Licensure in the state of Illinois.

However, (yechh pardon the grammar choice) this blog rarely deals with specific engineering or science topics and is more a repository for fiction or writing projects that don't fit anywhere else and sometimes has more to do with philosophy and culture.

I have a plan for creating another blog, possibly in Fall or Winter of 2016 that is going to deal more directly with science and philosophy of technology, but this project is strictly in the planning stages and might be deferred to my "hold" or "wait" lists until 2017, depending on how or if my employment situation changes?

All that having been gotten out of the way, the past few months have been busy adjusting to a new schedule, getting research reading in order for the rest of the summer (maybe even the Fall) and doing planning and initial note taking for some fiction stories. Rest of my time is divided between looking at employment, interviewing for jobs and trying to bootstrap a chunk of my old thinking on real world testing of emerging machine cognition theory into something more complete?

I may get to that in a future post here, but for right now, that is what I've been working on. You can get a closer look at some of my more recent thinking by following me on twitter @GregStaskowski or search for most of my previous work just by typing in "gjsengineer" into the search engine of your choice?

I don't expect this blog to have a significant audience anytime real soon, but for those of you who do check in from time to time, I expect my posting frequency to go up possibly targeting five to ten posts a month depending on what specific posts seem most useful or relevant?

"Happy Trailz"

The "mild Frustration" Post

Might as well, get directly to the "point." The past month and a half, my work in this medium has really not met my own, somewhat unrealistic standards and for that, I offer a sincere explanation, if not an excuse?

Partly, daily events have a way of exhausting my internal resources and also in part I have this sense or image currently of "a fallow field" waiting for new things to grow in terms of daily writing?

I can only remain optimistic and hopeful that a more productive summer will come and additional inspiration will arrive in a timely manner?

Plans for an additional web log focused more on technical aspects and engineering continue apace, but I really do not expect to have the design and focus complete until very likely August or early September? In short, "stay tuned" from time to time.

Ta

-GMB

And another thing, 1

I, really, really hate these. But. The idealized schedule for this blog was going to be six to ten, well thought out posts over the course of a given month? April unfortunately, completely fell apart two weeks in and so here we are in early May?

The tentative good news, is that my schedule has been slightly re-arranged so I shouldn't be off and away as often as I have been the past few weeks. So, wow, April 2nd seems like a very long time ago, just now?

Stay tuned. Periodically.

This Blog contains..

The focus of this blog for the next six months or more is going to be my more experimental writing, daily notes and experiences while #offgrid and finally, some posts related to the intersection of engineering science (my previous career) and society as it comes up.

That should be plenty to be getting on with.

"Happy Trails"

-GJS

Administrative nuisance 3/31/2016

Eventual idea for this blog is regular posting either every other day or every other week.

I expected the past two weeks to be slow because I'm shifting back from Colorado to Illinois.

So, no real news, thanks for stopping in?

I really hate blog posts like this and now you can join in, in a sort of group cry of silent, mild frustration if you happen to be into that sort of thing?

Since no one is reading this blog yet, anyway, I'm really engaged in a somewhat futile exercise with myself, at the mo. Then there is the additional faux pas of using "blogger" of all things, in lovely, modern sophisticated Web 2.0, 2016?

I know. I don't like wordpress for a whole host of reasons and until I can find a hosting solution I'm happy with and or a reliable income stream. Beggars can't be choosers.

-Tah

-GJS