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I was up late last night... no reason, really, just couldn't fall asleep after the long weekend. Now I'm at work and kind of struggling to wake up. Sipping an energy drink and trying to focus enough to get started. I'm using this post to help wake up my brain before I get to work.
As I said in a previous post, I'm working on learning to program seriously. I think that's coming well, though I have to admit I have not yet sat down and tried coding anything since restarting my studies in that area. Normally, I would see that as a lack of progress. This time, I think it's a good thing. From what I am reading, one of my weaknesses with programming may be that I rush into coding before I have a clear plan. I start with a general idea and immediately begin implementing it. I have never worked with flowcharts, structure charts, or pseudo-code. I did everything in my head, or in pure code. To the point of writing out entire programs (in BASIC) on paper and debugging them in my mind when I wasn't near a computer to test them. With BASIC, and with the kind of programs I was working with at the time, that works. With anything more complicated, it's probably not a good idea. So I'm learning about these tools, and the principles of top-down design and stepwise refinement. I'm also learning about some concepts that I never really got, like algorithms. I'd heard the term algorithm billions of times, but I never really understood what it meant. My computer programming teacher in high school certainly never explained it to me. Now, I know.
On top of all this, I have been giving a great deal of thought to integrating my magical path and my work with computers. I've done some work in this area already by naming my computers and paying attention to their personalities. That's a start. But I feel like I've neglected other areas.
When I first decided, in high school, that I wanted to be a hacker, one of the names I chose as a handle for a while was "netshaman". I never really made use of it, and I do not retain the email address associated with it, but I've found myself increasingly drawn back to it as a concept. I will not be taking it up as a name again, but it is a word that defines what I would like to become. Which seems to suggest some directions for my future work in this area.
First, and to me the most vital element of shamanistic practice, is the idea of the spirit-journey. I use this already in my magical practices, and have for some time. But for a cybershaman, the destination is not the Underworld. It is the LAN and WAN, the wired and the wireless, the internet and the plain old telephone system, and many more elements as well. All cyberspaces, whether connected or not... each shifting, changing, merging, growing. A new world. A world "of the electron and the switch." I believe I am moving towards the point where I will be ready to embark upon such a journey, though I am not entirely sure what I may find there. It is a young Dreaming, with new ways and new gods... and old gods with new faces. I look forward to meeting them, and whatever else may inhabit their world.
Another shamanic element is the use of what may loosely be termed a medicine bag... I borrow this term because I truly do not know what else to call it. In my case, I mean this basically as a small container usually carried with the shaman containing objects believed to hold some power or virtue. Personally, I tend to view them as tools, and often refer to my own pouch as a tool bag, though I do not generally choose to carry it with me unless I know it will be needed. It tends to draw unwanted attention in this day and age, plus my bags are heavy enough already. That said, I find that I have already taken on a techno-magical equivalent without knowing it. For many months now I have carried with me a 1 GB USB pen-drive. I use it at work, at school, and at home. I store things on it that I find useful, informative, or precious. The majority of these have been text files, so I have only used about 207 MB, though it often feels like I should have used far more with the amount of things I have saved on it. On the rare occasions I am parted from it, I can almost feel the shape of it in my hand. It is becoming a part of me, much the same way my tool bag already is. In another sense, my literal bag of tools for repairing computers may begin to also take on a role as metaphysical tools, as I gain more use from it and tune it to my needs. Some of the tools from it, most notably my good screwdriver that I have been carrying with me, may already serve me in that regard.
I'm not really sure where the path leads from here, but I think I'm ready to find out.
As I said in a previous post, I'm working on learning to program seriously. I think that's coming well, though I have to admit I have not yet sat down and tried coding anything since restarting my studies in that area. Normally, I would see that as a lack of progress. This time, I think it's a good thing. From what I am reading, one of my weaknesses with programming may be that I rush into coding before I have a clear plan. I start with a general idea and immediately begin implementing it. I have never worked with flowcharts, structure charts, or pseudo-code. I did everything in my head, or in pure code. To the point of writing out entire programs (in BASIC) on paper and debugging them in my mind when I wasn't near a computer to test them. With BASIC, and with the kind of programs I was working with at the time, that works. With anything more complicated, it's probably not a good idea. So I'm learning about these tools, and the principles of top-down design and stepwise refinement. I'm also learning about some concepts that I never really got, like algorithms. I'd heard the term algorithm billions of times, but I never really understood what it meant. My computer programming teacher in high school certainly never explained it to me. Now, I know.
On top of all this, I have been giving a great deal of thought to integrating my magical path and my work with computers. I've done some work in this area already by naming my computers and paying attention to their personalities. That's a start. But I feel like I've neglected other areas.
When I first decided, in high school, that I wanted to be a hacker, one of the names I chose as a handle for a while was "netshaman". I never really made use of it, and I do not retain the email address associated with it, but I've found myself increasingly drawn back to it as a concept. I will not be taking it up as a name again, but it is a word that defines what I would like to become. Which seems to suggest some directions for my future work in this area.
First, and to me the most vital element of shamanistic practice, is the idea of the spirit-journey. I use this already in my magical practices, and have for some time. But for a cybershaman, the destination is not the Underworld. It is the LAN and WAN, the wired and the wireless, the internet and the plain old telephone system, and many more elements as well. All cyberspaces, whether connected or not... each shifting, changing, merging, growing. A new world. A world "of the electron and the switch." I believe I am moving towards the point where I will be ready to embark upon such a journey, though I am not entirely sure what I may find there. It is a young Dreaming, with new ways and new gods... and old gods with new faces. I look forward to meeting them, and whatever else may inhabit their world.
Another shamanic element is the use of what may loosely be termed a medicine bag... I borrow this term because I truly do not know what else to call it. In my case, I mean this basically as a small container usually carried with the shaman containing objects believed to hold some power or virtue. Personally, I tend to view them as tools, and often refer to my own pouch as a tool bag, though I do not generally choose to carry it with me unless I know it will be needed. It tends to draw unwanted attention in this day and age, plus my bags are heavy enough already. That said, I find that I have already taken on a techno-magical equivalent without knowing it. For many months now I have carried with me a 1 GB USB pen-drive. I use it at work, at school, and at home. I store things on it that I find useful, informative, or precious. The majority of these have been text files, so I have only used about 207 MB, though it often feels like I should have used far more with the amount of things I have saved on it. On the rare occasions I am parted from it, I can almost feel the shape of it in my hand. It is becoming a part of me, much the same way my tool bag already is. In another sense, my literal bag of tools for repairing computers may begin to also take on a role as metaphysical tools, as I gain more use from it and tune it to my needs. Some of the tools from it, most notably my good screwdriver that I have been carrying with me, may already serve me in that regard.
I'm not really sure where the path leads from here, but I think I'm ready to find out.
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