I would not daylog if I wasn't being urged to do so as part of our venture. However, I do feel I should make some brief notes on my progress as an iron noder, which is my progress as a noder, which is my progress as a human being.
I was actually working on a theme this year for iron noder, of a sort. I have been, compared to past years, somewhat slower in writing, but I actually think this year's effort has been one of my best yet. I am trying to discover what e2 is for, the golden realm between dry data and fecund emotion. I was going to cover the recent elections (already gone beyond the horizon of the news cycle), but in doing so, I begin to think, as I often do, about the many gradations of the American political landscape. I started out on a quest to describe the vagaries of geography. I still plan to return to my original goal. If nothing else, the sheer number of elections in the United States gives me a great deal of numbers to churn out.
There is a personal side to my fascination with isolated points. I have spent over a year living in Hamilton, Montana, which is quite a change from the life of a hipster in Portland, Oregon. Part of my isolation is caused by me being in a place where the political and social currents are (superficially, at least), different from what I was used to in Portland. But I think much of my isolation comes from a deeper source than the lack of options for cheap Thai Food: it is about the fact that I am more adept and interested in written English than spoken English. This is actually a preview for a writeup I am planning, on Standard Written English, but there is an entire mindset that comes with using the written word over the spoken word that is hard to capture. Recently, I left Facebook for a week and a half because the constant stream of images and one-liners was not contributing to my edification. During this absent period, I realized how much of a home I had on e2, because here, the people speak my native language: written English.
It is personally very important for me that I can have people who I can communicate with in the subtleties and gradations that written language allows, as opposed to the sloganeering that is omnipresent on the internet. It is also very important to the world as a whole that the technological availability of information and out new-found ability to share everyone's opinions, views and information becomes part of decision making. So that, in short, is my daylog describing my trajectory, as we, the brave few noders of e2, try to channel the internets violent froth of chaotic information into a form that can be used by the people as a whole.