Scalars and Touchstones

Direction. What the crap are my goals? Where on Earth are they going to take me? Why are they so important? What should be important about them? Questions, questions. They should be asked in reverse order.

I feel like a scalar--that is to say, a magnitude with no direction. A scalar at it's best can only sit down and marvel at just how voluminous it is. "Wow!" says the Scalar. "I sure am big!" And that is about all it can say for itself. It is a holographic horn-of-plenty spilling out on sand. No one wants to be a Scalar. Even the tiniest little vector is being more useful as it presses on the Wall of Berlin. An amorphous blob of glory does nobody any good, and as Carlyle observed: all thought must end in action. I cannot expect to be happy if my power, whatever that may be, is dwindled to nothing more than "I sure am big!"

Oh, but it's scary! A direction is something that is difficult to choose. In the past I've let influences make my decisions for me, believing whatever direction I fell into would be God's plan and that everything would be okay. I mean, the worst I would ever have to do would be to deal with life every once and a while. But life... Life is not supposed to be dealt with; it is much more enjoyable when lived! This has been my realization of the year, and so has been the recognition (or perhaps assumption) of my Scalar status. Before, I didn't even realize I had a magnitude or even a true capacity to choose a direction. I always just assumed I'd fall into one as I always had. That was great. Now I have responsibility to choose for myself not because somebody is making me, but because it WILL be chosen. It may be chosen quickly and ignorantly or I may just drift into the stream and hope there isn't a waterfall at the end, but either way I will have made my choice, and I will have nobody to hold that to but myself.

Love is great thing. Perhaps the best of things in which a decision can take root. Love connects all people with no regard for matter. It is the form of compassion, sympathy, empathy, service, emotion, and telling somebody they look nice today. It is in grief and sorrow and pain and acceptance. It is the empathetic imagination and any goal that has no grounds in love is probably not that great of a goal. I keep this in mind and think of it as a working definition.

So it is no secret: Goals are nearly synonymous with direction. Life Goals are foci and touchstones for every activity we take part in and guide our thoughts and what are minds will be molded to. They cannot be untouchable, and they cannot be fickle. How do I form them? I don't know the exact answer to that, but I do have a certain direction in mind.

1) What should be important?
-Tough Question, but it's really the first question that must be answered. It's like setting goals for my goals. Finding out what truly matters to me and why it matters to me will help me know how to value the things and activities of my life. Levels of importance should also be determined. This is the same as setting priorities. Is happiness important? Free time? Family? Friends? Pets? How? How much?

2) How should my goals reflect what is important?
-Okay, I figured out what's important. Now, I need to figure out how those important things are going to be translated into philosophies of living. What are my mottoes? What are my themes? Every one of my goals should line up with my general philosophy of importance so that I remain focused and uneasily fooled into things that I don't think are good.

3) How will my goals bring me closer to what is important?
- I think I've figured out how my goals will reflect importance, so now I need to know how they will actually translate into practicality. How will what's important translate into doable achievements, physical directions, and actual decisions. Understanding my capabilities and motivations, what things can I achieve or acquire that will make me a living example of what I think is important?

4) What the crap are my goals?
-Now I need to make a list. First of long-term goals: as specific as I can feasibly make them so that my shorter-term goals can be working toward them. Then work backwards from there until the NOW.

5) How do I test my goals to make sure they are good ones?
-I have to be able to test every aspect above at that level of development so that I'm not just shooting blind and working toward something that isn't actually in vain or destructive. I haven't actually figured out how to do that yet, but I would be a great thing to have a touchstone for it all. Maybe that's God. Make nothing untouchable or fickle.

All in all, this in is itself is a goal that has passed though all 5 stages, just without some written law. I don't expect it to be quick, but I think it will be fun and something to think about. It is important to have direction, and I'm finding that out more everyday.

Google is Taking Over... My Heart.

It's amazing to me the stunning ability that Google has in making awesome ways to organize and share information. Thinking about where they'll go next, I can only imagine the kinds of services they will provide. Here are some things that have wowed me lately:

Google Desktop--I thought it was a gimmick, but it turns out to be one of the greatest information organizers I could have wished for, offering all manner of information an connectivity at your fingertips.

Google Calendar--With this new feature from Google, you can easily create a calendar of your events and even SHARE that calendar with the public or your friends. You can add all KINDS of calendars to yours of topics ranging from international holidays to Movie releases.

Wrightly--Not yet available, this program was recently bought by Google. It is an online word processor allowing people to upload documents from Word, co-edit documents in real time, store documents online, save to your desktop and much more. Since Google bought the company, I can only speculate as to what OTHER attractive features it will have before it's Google release. The only way to get an account for now is to find someone who already has one and ask for it. Unfortunately, I don't have one.

Google Book project--Tired of the library? A bit too three dimensional for you? Google's Book project aims to digitize the worlds written knowledge into a search-able, invincible format. Search through copyrighted material and read entire volumes of the public domain! They have respected copyright laws while simultaneously allowing the public access to worlds of knowledge. Here's hoping the project goes off without a hitch.

Gmail--I could not praise Google without mentioning Gmail. This web-based email account has made my life better in ways I am only beginning to understand. Easy and simple to use, my entire archive of messages are all search-ready and retrievable, and with over two gigs of space, I'll never run out of message space.

Google Talk--In Gmail, I also have all of my Google Talk logs. Google talk is simple, reliable, add-free and quickly approaching a point of being better than AIM. It's Call feature is one of the most amazing things I have ever experienced and has MUCH better voice quality than a phone. The connection is instant, and best of all: it's all free. And why shouldn't it be? The company gets 12 cents per Google search!

There is more of course: Blogger, Google Maps, and the most comprehensive search available on the web. Thinking about it, Google is heading to a place of being much more efficient than Microsoft works and office. With a few more future programs, this will be the United States of Google, and you won't hear me complaining.

"Don't be evil."

The folks at Google have been hard at work making my life awesome since day one, so thank you Google. You're name is fun to say.