Nels Lindahl — Functional Journal

A weblog created by Dr. Nels Lindahl featuring writings and thoughts…

Category: Reading

  • Somewhat ephemeral content

    Staying at the bleeding edge of technology can shift the content toward the category of becoming ephemeral instead of it being foundational. Written content that covers the moment can be fleeting and pass from useful to stale at any moment. Content that is foundational makes a contribution to the underlying academy of academic thought on the subject. Those efforts in the pursuit of studying something to lay a foundation are different from the efforts to observe and report on the phenomenon as it develops. A lot of my efforts fall into the exploratory research side of things. However, most of what I end up producing on this weblog is probably not in either of those categories. It is something decidedly different. My efforts to write are about thinking out loud and for better or worse they are probably somewhere in the middle of those two previously enumerated constructs of ephemeral and foundational content. It is entirely possible that a weblog post from time to time will go one way or the other, but most of them are going to be highly ephemeral in nature. That is the natural conclusion of sitting down and writing about whatever comes to mind. Using a stream of consciousness method to kickstart writing everyday will be inherently ephemeral. It would be a truly interesting case study if things went the other way. Each post represents my thoughts at the moment. Some of it or more likely part of an argument contained in a post might at some point end up published. 

    Yesterday, I logged in and used EndNote online. I thought maybe a copy of the software had been installed on this computer, but it appears to have been lost at some point. It was the first time this year that I wanted to use the software. Instead of managing citations the right way it always seems that they end up getting worked one paper at a time instead of comprehensively in a system that manages that type of academic content: references or citations. The reason I wanted to go back and use EndNote was my renewed focus on reading something academic every day. You have to take the time to read everyday. Seriously, take the time to read everyday. If you are reading this second paragraph of prose from July 8, 2020, then you are probably an active reader and my plea to read everyday is unnecessary. My office contains a library of three full bookshelves that from time to time overflow. I am currently reading this book, “Graesser, L. H., & Keng, W. L. (2020). Foundations of deep reinforcement learning : theory and practice in Python. Boston: Pearson Addison-Wesley.” I’m putting a deeper focus on both reading academic works and writing in an academic style. That is where spending a little bit of time reading every day and making sure the citations are collected in EndNote becomes so important. This might be a time in my career where I’m going to spend 90% of my available time reading and only 10% of that time writing. 

    Interrupted. School.

  • Just a couple days of reading books

    Over the last three days, I have been reading a paperback copy of The Dark Fields (Limitless) by Alan Glynn (2001). It was something that I picked up on eBay. It appears that somebody sold me a book they got from the clearance bin at Half Priced Books. Overall the book was in fantastic condition. Only one dogged eared page separated it from basically being brand new. For some oddly peculiar reason, I had wanted to read the book in paperback version. That had been important to me at the time of the purchase. Alan Glynn had a great story idea. It translated to a pretty entertaining movie (Limitless) featuring Bradley Cooper (2011). The book did not really hold my attention very well, but some parts of it were engaging enough to keep me going.

    During the course of reading the book I was listening a recently released Dream Theater album called New Millennium (Live) which was released in 2017. It may very well be my favorite Dream Theater recording. I’m not sure why exactly, but over the last month or so I have been listening to a lot of Dream Theater. Listening to albums and reading books is pretty much the way things are going these days. It has been awhile since writing with a single minded purpose drove me forward. Maybe something will spark that single minded purpose and help me drive into the deep end of writing. My writing habits tend to be highly extreme. I either produce a ton of prose or no prose at all.



    My nightstand holds a stack of books that will be read at some point before coming to rest on a shelf in my office. We have a library in our house. It resides in my office. Some of the classic are collecting dust and other books that I have come across are simply resting on a shelf. Having a home library of books is probably an inherently good thing. Reading, learning, exploring, and enhancing understanding help you to strive forward.

    This post has not yet reached the minimum cutoff of 500 words. That should be easy to fix assuming the right amount of effort and time get mixed together.

    Spending time engaging in the act of writing generally begets more writing. Rain is rarely if ever described or categorized as a single drop that fell and was gone. Writers tend to write like rain. It would be strange to read prose like the following…

    Clouds pulled across the sky throughout the afternoon. A certain amount of darkness had come before nightfall. Gloomy and frightful weather influenced everything anyway had planned. Overcast and threatening the clouds reminded everyone of what was coming. A small amount of thunder even rolled along to ensure anyone who had not looked up was aware of the impending storm. All of the wind and lack of sun and forced a dramatic drop in the temperature. It was a lot of backdrop for the one drop of rain that fell harmlessly in a open field. Nobody was around to even take note that it had happened. That was the only precipitation that occurred.

  • These are the moments that happen

    These are the moments that happen right when the quiet time starts. That little bit of time before bed where things slow down and quiet happens. It really is just a little burst of time that happens. Things like this happen without any explanation. Separate from that inexplicable moment is my interest in writing some fiction novels. It has been some time since that type of mood has stricken my thoughts. Do consider the word stricken in this case to describe a type of infection. My writing typically ends up being either a functional journaling of thoughts, essays, or nonfiction efforts. Very little of my day in and day out writing ends up being fiction based.

    Maybe I missed my calling. The last nonfiction book series I truly enjoyed reading was by David Baldacci. The Camel Club was a series that kept my attention and sparked my imagination. I could truly picture the characters and imagine how the book played out. Sometimes it seems like a good idea to just writing short stories within the spy thriller genre. That type of writing provides a grand adventure into distracting myself within my imagination. Knowing that it does not drive my inquiry into the greater understanding of the intersection of technology and modernity is really the only thing that keeps me from engaging in that type of prose.

    Each weblog post helps to define the nature of my inquiry. It helps define the nature of the search and the footsteps that were taken down the path of understanding the intersection of technology and modernity. Maybe it is more or less about understanding how our grand social fabric came together and what it would take to drive things forward. That search for improvement is the keystone that brings our grand history into context. We strive to move forward in ways that could erase division and spark stronger community. Accepting and being present in the moment is not about abandoning the quest to strive forward. Being away of the moment and accepting the moment are important parts of taking active steps to improve things along the way. They are an important part of deciding to make each step toward improvement count.