Unabashed

As I’m thinking about the direction of this site (in the past tense, not in the future), it looks like I’ve spent a whole lot more time discussing green power and the environment than I have my writing. Since the site is called “mattmitchellfiction.com,” that lines me up for a misnomer award. But I’m not fretting; if there’s one thing I make clear on the about page, it’s that I’m liable to discuss anything at all here, and I feel like I’ve kept my promise on that end. Besides, there hasn’t been much to talk about on the writing front anyway. I’ve collected a half dozen rejections this year for various stories, all which were submitted to SFFWA markets. And I’m not particularly down about it, because I’ve got my hand stirring other pots right now, including the one Super Sekrit Projeckt that I might as well go ahead and tell you about, because though it might not be a revolutionary idea, it is a remodeling of things that are, to better fit in line with where I think things want to go. To explain further….

Social networking is what it is, and a lot of people mess around with it. But MySpace and Facebook and the like have just grown to such gargantuan size, and friending has grown so rampant, that it’s become cumbersome to use them. Not to mention the fact that if you’re a guy of a certain age and you use it a lot you’ll get the perv stamp applied to your forehead. Some people are forecasting that social networks are going to shrink down in size and become modeled more for specific groups of like-minded people. When I first started reading about that, it made me kind of excited, because that’s exactly what I’ve had planned for some time now. And I’m not talking about making a little ning carbon-copy-type network, I’m talking about a full-blown SN site with all the bells and whistles and a few tambourines and jingle jangles that aren’t being done at all right now. Something to send social networking into a different direction.

As you can probably guess, since I spend so much time ruminating about the state of the environment, being eco-friendly, green energy and just the outdoors in general, you might ascertain what the general mindset of folks who might use my SN will be tempered like. But it’s much bigger than that. To what extent, I can’t really say yet. Like I said, it might not be revolutionary (I think it is), but it is at least a remodeling of the way SN is done. It’s something that I’d like to get a lot of attention. It’s something that I feel will potentially be a positive source of forward-thinking for the world, for society and civilization as a whole. Yes, I’m thinking big, but I’m a big thinker…so.

The site will go live on or near September 8th, 2008. Me being a big fan of 8s, you might remember, and this being my year, this is a day that may live in glory. It would have been great to go live on 8-8-08, but my network people assure me that’s a practical impossibility. But still, 8-8-08 will be a day of importance, because that’s the day I hope to begin recruiting a group of beta testers (I’m going to call them “trailblazers”), who will receive a free lifetime membership in what I hope will become a very large and successful social networking site. So: the beans have been spilled (at least to the extent at which my business partner has allowed me to spill them), and the project is now out of the closet (er, so to speak), unveiled right here on Unabashed. I’m frankly tickled about it, and I hope some of you will be, too. If you’d like to be a trailblazer for [Re]Evolver, just let me know in the comments of this post or in email (mattmitchell8 at gmail dot com). There are going to be a limited number of slots available (to the tune of around a hundred), so it’ll be best to get your name in quick.

Want more specifics? Fine. Here’s what I can tell you now:

The site has a home already at reevolver.com. There’s a splash page up that I made myself, so don’t expect the end result to look even remotely similar. I’ve contracted a pro to build the site (a pro, who I might add, likes the idea so much he’s asked for a partnership).

[Re]Evolver is just how I wrote the name when I first thought of it (Imagine my surprise to find that the .com, .org and .net URLs were all available!), but it looks like the official logo will be similar to that in form, at least.

And what is Re-evolver, exactly? Re-evolver is a term for the human tribe. It is based upon the principle that we’ve evolved into a separate entity from the environment, and that it is now time to re-evolve into a more beneficially symbiotic organism that can work with Earth’s ecosystem rather than against it. But it’s not preachy, dogmatic or unrealistic, it’s (what I hope will be) a fun approach to educating people on eco-friendly principles, promoting sustainability and a back-to-basics, back-to-Earth mentality.

There will be activities.

There! I’ve said too much. Let me know what you think.

Oh, and if you’re wondering about the future of Unabashed, never fret. This is my personal blog and it’s going to stay right here for the foreseeable future. And besides, ReEvolver might not be a book getting published, but it’s because of my writing that it exists at all; that little habit I have of jotting down ideas finally resulted in a project with momentum. And by the time I’m through with it, I think it will be the size of a book. Anyway…

written by Matt Mitchell \\ tags: Future, networking, re-evolver, reevolver, social

I’m a very good sleeper. My wife has observed that I can lie down in bed, squirm a bit while I wriggle into the Optimum Comfort Position, and then I can say, “Watch this,” and fall directly to sleep. And she’s right, for the most part. When I get tired I can go to sleep. It’s a blessing I count, because I’ve known people who can’t sleep or who sleep fitfully, and I value the experience every day. But as a mechanism, a lot of things have to line up for it to work just right. I’ve spent a lot of time developing the process’s fundamentals. All the basics apply: I have to have the right temperature, the right pillow (or combination thereof, because I use two pillows. One my wife jokingly calls “Nurse Nancy,” because I hug up close and tight to it. But it’s really just a way to keep my shoulders from slouching, because I sleep on my side), and I need of course a good blanket over me. After that, things get really serious, but if I succeed at two key functions, then sleep is just a moment or two away.

The first requirement is some level of white noise. A small fan works well enough in this department. The reason I need the noise is pretty simple: I have an active imagination, and when I hear a noise I try to identify it. I try to figure out why that pipe might have rattled, I imagine the water flowing through it, down and down, the clogs along the way: is there a faucet running somewhere? Is it the dishwasher? And the level of noise at nighttime never ceases to amaze me. Minutiae of every sort, encroaching upon my imagination’s wildest forthcomings. What kind of bird was that? What is that growling noise in the closet? Did I just hear that noise the night-vision goggles made in Silence of the Lambs? And it gets worse, of course. But a certain level of white noise efficiently eradicates those mental wanderings, to the point where I am able to concentrate on only those things that increase my chances of drifting off to sleep.

The concentration is paramount in the process. I can’t think about things that are happening, and things that have happened in the past are a death knell for the sandman’s visit. Oddly enough, what I find most settling for my mind is something that I find very exciting, too, and it’s a result of that same imagination that would otherwise keep me from sleep if I didn’t have the white-noise generator. I think about my projects. The stories I’m writing, the ideas I’m nurturing, any and everything that keeps my mind active during the day somehow allows me to unplug when I turn out the light. Maybe it’s just a result of positive thinking, because with my projects I am always positive. Anything negative–bad memories or past failures–spells doom for sleep. I’ve turned over many an idea in my head in those final moments of consciousness and come up with a gripping new twist or a sensational, settling ending. Some of my best thinking happens in those few moments right before I fall asleep, and when I awaken, I find that I can expound and even improve the idea.

Saturday night I decided to sleep outside. I made a pallet on the back porch and let my dog know she was on guard duty, and then I settled in for a night of reconnecting with Mother Earth. She did not disappoint. There’s something satisfying in sleeping under the stars, waking up with a trace of dew across your forehead and pillow, and it’s always a bit startling to experience the world waking up, something I can’t do in my cocoon of comfort and white noise in the bedroom. Sunday morning I awakened with the rest of the world around me, those parts of it that are mostly only seen flitting in the periphery when you live in an industrialized society. The cool gray dawn met me with songbirds by the seeming multitudes, including one particularly throaty mocking bird who I think was about two feet from my head. I lay there soaking it all in for about thirty minutes, and then I staggered into the cocoon and got another hour’s restful sleep.

The experience was worth it. It reminded me of camping trips when I was a kid, when I used to throw down a sleeping bag anywhere and sleep with perfect comfort. I didn’t worry then about ticks or ants or mosquitoes, I just plopped down and didn’t care. But most importantly it reminded me of the life that lives on the periphery, of Earth herself, struggling to be a good home to us all, despite our virulent ways.

And now I’ve got another project in mind: a permanent dwelling, that I want to build somewhere on my six acres, fashioned after the example of the native Americans once of this area, the Creek Indians. A wigwam, if you will. A retreat, yes, but also a hub, a place to recharge and reconnect with primitive, fundamental elements.

written by Matt Mitchell \\ tags: dwelling, Earth, indigenous, Nature, reconnect, rest, sandman, sleep, wigwam