Strikes a chord

Give yourself 19 minutes and check this out. It's nice to have someone speak so accurately and eloquently about something I've been thinking about/worried about/questioning for years, though if you read this blog you probably know me too well to consider me an introvert, in fact, you probably think of me as semi-obnoxious.

The Fox

Ok.  Last Friday I was listening to a weekly music show on NPR, and they unleashed this bad boy.  I thought it was great, until I saw the video, and I fell even more madly in love with these crazy Norwegians that make songs about foxes.  If you're bored at least make it to a chorus...

Tech week anthem, anyone?  How quickly will this become annoying...

(answer: never.)

But what if you're playing video games as an outcome of distraction?

Interesting article on how to rebuild an attention span.  Unfortunately I can't find the time or focus to finish it right now so I'll have to get to it later.  If anyone gets through it and can answer the question in the subject of this blog post let me know.

Sprezzatura

Sprezzatura [sprettsaˈtura] is an Italian word originating from Baldassare Castiglione's The Book of the Courtier, where it is defined by the author as "a certain nonchalance, so as to conceal all art and make whatever one does or says appear to be without effort and almost without any thought about it".^[1] It is the ability of the courtier to display "an easy facility in accomplishing difficult actions which hides the conscious effort that went into them".^[2] Sprezzatura has also been described "as a form of defensive irony: the ability to disguise what one really desires, feels, thinks, and means or intends behind a mask of apparent reticence and nonchalance".^[3]

The word has entered the English language; the Oxford English Dictionary defines it as "studied carelessness".^[4]

(definition stolen from Wikipedia after I happened upon this new world!)