Mon, 30 Apr 2012 14:07:11 -0800WeeblyTue, 20 Mar 2012 08:29:00 -0800http://www.mickwinter.com/1/post/2012/03/qr-code-interview-in-sri-lanka.htmlInterview with me last Sunday in Sri Lanka's Montage supplement in the Sunday Observer.

http://www.sundayobserver.lk/2012/03/18/mon10.asp 
]]>Wed, 27 Jul 2011 10:08:21 -0800http://www.mickwinter.com/1/post/2011/07/post-title-click-and-type-to-edit.htmlI graduated Monday. From the University of Brighton in the UK. Brighton used to be in England but apparently, at least to us Americans, England has been replaced by the UK and people there are now British rather than English. Did this happen under Thatcher? Why? What was wrong with being English?

Yes, I know the UK also includes Scotland, Wales and Northern Island, but England had more of a ring to it, certainly when you were talking about that particular part of the UK. Now it's down to the UK. And I guess the slogan these days is "The sun never sets on the United Kingdom," which is both pathetic and untrue.

But I digress.

I just missed my third graduation ceremony in a row. I missed high school because I was framed by someone else's prank. (Yes, I did one of my own but mine wasn't grave enough to not participate in the ceremony.) I missed the ceremony for my BA in German from the University of California, Santa Barbara because I'd actually graduated mid-year and wasn't interested in going back for the June ceremony. But the one in Brighton I'd intended to make. In fact going through the ceremony was one of my motivations for going to grad school. I thought it would be fun to dress up as an academic. And some kind of completion. However, for a variety of reasons, my attendance at that theatrical event was not to be. I'd hoped to at least watch it on the Internet since they streamed it live. But it didn't start until 2:15 am my time. Apparently my dedication wasn't as great as I neede

Fortunately, grad school turned out to be fun on its own. I had a wonderful time. My left brain got its full and my right brain frolicked too. I want more. No, not a PhD, but at least more classes...from somewhere sometime. And I've developed a taste for reading and writing academic papers. I'll keep doing that. And, thanks to Professor Tara Brabazon, three of my papers will be chapters in upcoming textbooks.

So I've now graduated from the University of Brighton with a Master of Arts (Distinction) in Creative Media. I've never even been to Brighton (although I likely passed right by it on a Vespa many years ago when traveling from Southampton to the Channel ferry in Folkestone.

My Brighton courses were all done at a distance. I had copies of all the required readings, I had access to online journals, I had email and Skype contact with my professor, there were online discussions (using that pathetic Blackboard software), and towards the end Tara was kind enough to record seminars and send the audio files to me. And I had access to all kinds of web-based services to use in creating a variety of projects.

So I was as much "there" as I could be. Some day I'll take my family to Brighton and we can see my alma mater and I can tell them about old times there. At least virtual old times.

In the meantime, thanks Tara, thanks Kathryn and Joanna.

Onward ]]>Sat, 11 Jun 2011 11:33:14 -0800http://www.mickwinter.com/1/post/2011/06/first-post.htmlIt has occurred to me that I have predicted...

• the Dot.com crash of 2000
• The stock market crash of 2008
• The current real estate crash (ongoing but soon to intensify and really drop)
• The dramatic increase in the price of gold (since 2000)
  

as well as the

• The Stock Market Crash of 2011 ( or 2012 - the first was just a warm up)
• The Crash of the US Dollar in 2011 (or 2012 - its days as the world's reserve currency are gone. The dollar is like Wile E. Coyote running off a cliff. Everything seems fine until he looks down and sees reality.)
• The US Government's debt default of 2012  (at the latest)

Why do some people (and there are millions of us) see that some things can't last and that change is coming? I don't think there's anything special about such people; no mysterious psychic powers. Everything is quite clear. It just can't be seen by people who are attached to the status quo. If people don't want to see the likelihood of change, they won't.

]]>