What about the Tesla Coil, flourescent lighting and Extra Low Frequency -
lighting up 40 watt bulbs stuck in the sand?
Leland
-----Original Message-----
From: Ken Follett <[log in to unmask]>
To: [log in to unmask]
<[log in to unmask]>
Date: Monday, February 16, 1998 3:00 PM
Subject: Maps Are Us
>John Leeke mentioned the idea of spreading the IPTW to Alabama etc. My
>brother, Jim Follett, mentioned he thought Alabama etc. needed more dirt
work
>than hand. Bryan asked for a clarification. I responded, and caused Bryan
to
>respond wondering what the hell I was talking about, to which I now
respond.
>
>I see on BP an effort to put common definitions on the table. I support
this
>initiative and encourage it by falling out of my chair, therefore causing
>everyone to get alarmed and insist on some decorum at the table.
>
>We all carry different maps. There is that idea that was bouncing around
on
>BP of getting historic preservation on the psychic map. Which psychic map?
We
>all have different psychic maps.
>
>After 40 years of relating to each other I may have no idea what my brother
>meant by his comment, then again, it has never stopped me from pretending
to
>understand. We also seem to have just fine of a time missunderstanding past
>each other, it is a habit we seem to enjoy.
>
>What I was expressing was an early map of mine which I shared with my
brother,
>and a few others. As a kid we had five acres of woods and a lot of sticks
and
>stones to play with. We called it a sand pile, though there was not much
sand,
>mostly leaf humus. I’m not sure how it started but we sat down in the dirt
and
>built villages, towns, communities, cities, kingdoms, and empires out of
the
>sticks, stones, and dirt. When we moved to the local crick (a small creek)
we
>had merchant fleets that we enjoyed chasing and sinking. We were always
flying
>off somewhere, to a rotted stump or the barbecue pit (our earliest
experience
>of skyscrapers).
>
>You can make a semi-circle of small stones and set a flat stone on top and
>call it a house. It can also serve as a redoubt for gray or blue plastic
Civil
>War soldiers. Small twigs pounded into the ground would serve as corrals
for
>the twisted horses, chickens, and pigs. You can then take a larger rock and
>drop it out of the sky on your houses, like with Enola Gay. Sometimes you
miss
>and the puppeteers get bruised. A different sort of experience than Sim
City.
>Our bombs were not always smart and on occasion we hit each other. This
>usually resulted in our neglecting the empire while a more godlike battle
>ensued, therefore saving the empire, and all it’s little buildings for
another
>day... preservation by neglect.
>
>At about 11 years I stood up one day and said I was leaving the sand pile,
I
>felt an urge for a wider mapping of my world. I have been working my way
back
>ever since.
>
>When I lived in the Washington, DC area I drove cab in MD for 14 days.
During
>that time if I fell asleep I dreamed the map. Much of my supervisory career
in
>construction has consisted of driving to some other place, like the
hardware
>store or the stone quarry. I have always had a need to know where things
are,
>and who is where there with them as well. The buildings are a decoration to
>the human play. I like driving around, it is an extension of Sam Walton’s
idea
>of management by wandering around. I keep the world in an orderly fashion
by
>visiting it often. It helps to have well developed psychic maps. I
encourage
>everyone to develop good maps in their heads. After I mastered the
wandering
>in DC I was able to move to NYC. I continued to make a living, not so much
>from having intelligence, as from being able to be sent somwhere with the
>expectation that I would return in a reasonable amount of time. I continue
to
>wander around. Wandering around is the best part of my work.
>
>Outside of my maps, as with everyone else, there is a vast nothingness that
I
>have heard is populated. I go there once in a while in order to find the
>other, something different than myself.
>
>One aspect of my early map development was visiting all these historic
>villages in the US and Canada. My brother has these places in his map as
well.
>I don’t share his psychic map of Alabama. Then again, he does not share
many
>of my maps.
>
>Which gets back to John Leeke’s original suggestion... that consideration
>should be made for staging future “trade” (IPTW) oriented events with more
>imagination regarding American geography, the distribution and character of
>historic structures, and the distibution of those skilled (or unskilled but
>still stuck with the task) in maintaining these structures.
>
>][<en Follett
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