We live in exciting, fast, odd times. Real time can be overwhelming and exhilarating all at the same time. The time when we look back and say “Remember when Twitter was all THAT?” and shake our heads isn’t far off.

However, I wholeheartedly agree with your comment here, so perhaps that could be considered meeting you halfway.

Commenters are not all created equally. Twitter communities are because each of us creates the community we want.

Fondue parties…those were the days. Real-time conversation around pots of chocolate and cheese.

Got a laugh out of the notion of your grandson having the blog, tw*tter and gmail accounts. Truly, we live in weird and wonderful times. Perhaps they are the key to the college fund.

To see an octogenarian using a mobile phone that has predictive text to send a message is as revolutionary (if not more) than a pre-schooler. No need for re-grooving (FST reference, check wiki), some adapt to the current communications standard, not being stubborn about their telegraph skills but wanting to be in touch, bending, listening, sharing. Why not? I have learned more in single sentences from my elders who have the ability to refine a lifetime of experience than me watching the Matrix wash over me. I still have to be willing and able to hear what they have to say.

Timing again, is not a coincidence, so much of our current world in flux, the trimming and trashing of the current bloat in the material culture mirrors this parsed communications we have been experimenting with in the last few years. I truly enjoyed seeing 110 different kinds of olive oil at Whole Foods but will never try them all, parts of the long tail will whither and die as well as the fat spare tire of the middle should dwindle, hopefully not killing us in the process. We’re seeing actions and reactions I’ve not seen in my short lifetime, so current templates don’t seem to have much worth.

Last night I watched an episode of Elvis Costello’s new program Spectacle, which airs on Sundance ( http://tinyurl.com/9skeru ). I recommend that you take the time to watch is just for the convergence factor I witnessed. I tend to be drawn to the eclectic, but this was very much about what we are talking about here, on NGL and the Gillmor Gang. The host begins by performing “Mystery Train” with a small group which includes the amazing James Burton, who was on a lot of Elvis Presley’s original tracks. The main guest was Pres. Bill Clinton who was being interviewed from a humanistic and musical slant. The host is a thoughtful and intelligent interviewer, shaking the trees of this man who was our president for 8 years, about how music influenced him as a man and a politician. Clinton made some points that were great, in that he said he felt that some of the skills he used and uses are more like jazz improvisation than classical music. The ability to adapt to the direction of a group as it plays changes made perfect sense to me. Putting your personal feelings for the man aside, hearing him discuss handling difficult decisions and turning to music during and after for guidance and solace was fascinating. Another piece of the puzzle for me, without a doubt.

The show closed with Charlie Haden and Pat Metheny performing a piece for New Orleans that was a delicate sorbet for all the information that had gone before. If you have access to this channel, it’s well worth the hour and can be found in the On Demand menus.

Will we be able to adapt this country to the time from it’s current condition? Will we be able to communicate quickly and clearly with these new networks in a way that will help this transition? I hope so. Let’s keep this thread going and see where it goes.

But it’s boggling to see the obvious optimizations to be had. SMS and cell service are highway robbery, and the global conversation is but a few lines of code away (i.e. something that writes comments back to the original source).

Loved this post, of course. My 6-day old grandson has a blog, a Twitter account, and a gmail account. What’s he missing? Ah, yes, the college fund.

Thanks Fred Flintstone.