(Message writers:3) Date: Tue, 2 Dec 1997 23:25:44 EST From: "one flew over..." Subject: FILLER: Phrases from a Conference [just some intriguing words and phrases, semi-randomly culled from notes] "Are you comfortable with the concept of information technology?" As if I were going to cuddle up with it? or just sit down and lean back on it? Comfortable concepts? Does this imply there are uncomfortable concepts--and if there are, which type is more likely to be thoughtful (as in thought-provoking?), the comfortable or the uncomfortable? What kind of spines does a concept have? How sharp are its edges, and suppose I chip it--will it cut me? and will I bleed? Bring out... the comfy concept! no, not that! Is a concept furry? Warm, like goosedown and pinfeathers, or cold and forbidding, an iceberg bearing down on my little dingy rocking in the storm? So much for being comfortable with the concept... And turning to a new page, they talked of learning outcomes. information pummelled, packaged, beaten into shape and extruded at need? no serendipity do...just do and do. and with a laugh, we introduce...the crisis de jour! just what we needed, problems a la cordon bleu...french fried failure, tossed lightly with a wine sauce? project dissipation...now that's a fearful notion, the ghosts of projects past, fading slowly into the aether... and then there was the notion of reality tethered work--at least a thread of connection with reality, a line holding the kite so that it flies in the breeze instead of flopping and falling... up, up, and away in my beautiful, my beautiful syllogism... did that hit my sacrilege? or just my silly illie-ollogy? tink