Welcome!
The Short:
System Andromeda is the best title for all facets of my career and life to this point. Like most star systems, it is massive, varied, complicated. Yet it is also simple in purpose: to thrive, progress, evolve. It is not the beginning of anything, as it has already gone through numerous incarnations. It is an ongoing process, an attempt to chart my progress from the point where inception has reached the actionable phase.
Speaking of short, here's a little shorthand for you:
- SA = System Andromeda - when I use this abbreviation I'm either talking about the main site, or the general concept
- TFP = Tricky Fish Photography - the photography arm of my galaxy
- RR = Ransomed Roads - one of four blogs I write on, focused on
- LTC = The Lost Title Cards -
- AG = The Arcadian Gypsy Boutique -
The Less Short:
How does one put entire decades worth of ideas, philosophies and ambitions into a single summarization? How to put entire volumes of thought into bullet-point concision? I know of no method throughout time which truly does justice to the essence of such things.
~ Journal excerpt
These things cross my mind often when I ponder System Andromeda. Years it has taken me to get to this point, and a tangled, complicated, labyrinthine web of a convoluted journey it has been; difficult at times, as I moved down life's path, but never boring. How do you summarize something like that? And so I will try as often as possible to be brief in these matters; do forgive me when I tend towards the verbose.
System: Way
The Renaissance Woman
The phrase "jack-of-all-trades, master of none" is one that I always found very disappointing. Not in terms of focus but in it's narrow-minded view of those who would look beyond the scope of a single discipline or knowledge set. Such a thought shows a lack of imagination and daring, even borders on ignorance. Still, one word gets to me: master. To master any one thing is no small feat, and it is to be respected. Still I ask you, can we master only one thing in our lifetimes? Can there not be - if not "masters-of-all" - some happy middle ground?
Leonardo da Vinci (and his contemporaries) spent his life studying many disciplines, arts & texts. He knew vast amounts about the world around him and that of the past, and he used that information to imagine parts of the future in which we now live. Debate still rages over whether Shakespeare was one man or many, for his writings contained numerous occupations, disciplines, arts...he seemed to know so much. How could he have been one man?
Today we can barely conceive of such things. We live in a world where we are told to pick one thing and stick with it, that we must reach the all-important destination, only for some of us to find we have nothing left to really live for when we get there. But why not be like the greats of the Renaissance era...learning as much as we can about everything? Yes, it would take the rest of our lives to do so, but what else are we here for? I choose to consider myself no Jack, but rather a Renaissance Woman, striving throughout my life to learn and master as many of the wonders of this world as I can and care to. This is my way, the path I walk.
System: Execution & Efficiency
Why System Andromeda?
Believe it or not, my name is actually Andromeda. I can take no credit; my parents named me. Specifically, I was named after Andromeda, a character from Greek Mythology. Ever seen the classic B-movie Clash of the Titans? That's the basic gist with a few changes for dramatic effect. And of course, Andromeda is also a galaxy in the Andromeda Constellation. Known for being our nearest visible galactic neighbor, M31 (the astronomical designation for the Andromeda Galaxy) is also infamous for it's collision course with the Milky Way, set to occur some 5-6 billion years from now, during which it is said that Andromeda will swallow the Milky Way like a bunch of Skittles (actually, that sounds quite painful).
With so many fascinating historical & allegorical ties to my name, it is no wonder that I became a fan not only of mythology & stories but of astronomy & science as well. Most of my life I have looked up, inspired by the possibilities I saw before me. Mere light years away (ok, hundreds of thousands of light years away), entire universes and worlds are being born and dying....creation & evolution at their most elemental. How can that not inspire?
As I began to organize all of my projects - naming each one as it came to me - I realized that so many varied projects, each their own world of possibility and often overlapping, were not unlike a star system or a galaxy. Nor could I miss the obvious parallels when thinking how this process has engulfed my entire life. Finally, I knew I would need an actual system in order to achieve all of these monstrous goals and become more than a mere Jack.
Being a person of many interests requires creativity when it comes to scheduling and life management. In that respect, I've done rather well. It also requires an intensity of focus. There, I have not done so well. I've gotten better, though, finding ways to compensate for my almost gnat-like focus deficit through a variety of systems. This site is a part of those systems and encompasses them, giving me an opportunity to comment on any part of my process, providing one area to present my works & ideas, allowing me to vent & celebrate my trials & triumphs. It is the most efficient way I could think of to kick myself in the butt, organize, create, showcase, and share my goals & passions.
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