.cross.wired.mind.

I discovered comics when I was 4. I remember my favorite present that year was a Batman poster. Even though I could not read them at the time I loved looking through the ones I had over and over. I had books like Batman, Flash, Spiderman, and the Superman. Throughout elementary school I was a constant visitor at my local drugstore where they had two rotating racks of comics. Cover price was 25 cents. With an allowance of 75 cents (my mom paid the sales tax) I would gleefully pick out my three favorites each month. I did not always stay in series. I did not have enough money to buy the same books and often missed an issue or two.

In 1975 at the ripe age of 7 I discovered the X-Men. My brother brought home the Giant Sized X-Men and I was hooked. I bought every single issue from #94 (1975) through #143 (1981). I was now 14. Comic books had a stigma among kids that age. They were for children, not teenagers. So I gave up on them. I pushed them aside as a relic of the past. I moved on.

Flash forward to 1986. I was now 19 years old. I was out of school and free from all of the peer pressure and ridicule that goes along with being “different”. My friends were all gamers (RPGs and board games) and geeks like me. That year I picked up a copy of TSR’s Marvel Super Heroes Advanced Set. I also picked up Children of the Atom, which is a source book for the game that centers on the X-Men. Suddenly I am a kid again. I went into my closet and dragged out the old comics. My friends and I started up a regular game. Me as the GM and them taking on the role of the X-Men. We played every week for two years. What a blast.

I got back into the books. Catching up where I left off is a costly endeavor. Now, instead of the drugstore there are actually entire shops dedicated to comic books. Apparently my generation had enough geeks like me who are now willing to spend lots of money on superheroes. I ended up spending hundreds of dollars buying issues #144 through #209. I also got into the New Mutants, Avengers, and Judge Dredd. I entered new worlds with independent comics and heroes of all kinds.

Then college happens. I shouldn’t waste time reading anything with pictures. I should be reading literature and textbooks. Comics are for kids. At this point I end up selling almost every comic I own, with a hefty return on investment.

Five years pass by and I find myself once again face to face with comic books. In 1990 I began to work at a company (well it was one guy and we made it into a small business) that imported toys from Japan. Well we decided to make our own products so we delved into licensing and eventually made vinyl kits of Spawn, Zen the Intergalactic Ninja, and the Crow. During that time I was a frequent visitor to the comic book shop and my love for all things super-powered bloomed again.

Its been off and on since - my love of comics. Recently I have come to a realization. The reason I find myself steering away from comics is the feeling that they are for the less literate and that I should be reading more and looking at fewer pictures. Its all tied up with ADD and the feeling of inferiority that comes along with the disability.

The second part of this realization is that comics fit my cognitive style. According to the cognitive testing I underwent at Penn’s Adult ADHD center I have superior language skills and visual skills but poor reading speed and I am easily distracted during tasks. Comic books provide visual stimulation along with light reading. Reading comics is for me what reading a fluffy novel is to a person without ADD. Reading a fluffy novel is not easy for me, and reading real literature is a chore. Comics allow me to engage my mind without overtaxing it and thereby exacerbating my ADD symptoms.

I am no longer going to worry what others may think about my love of comics. They fit the way my brain works. They appeal to my love of the fantastic. They stimulate the parts of my brain that are need the exercise. In short comics are therapeutic … and I like em.

The first time I used a DVR I had a feeling that I had just tapped into something big. It was a true paradigm shift unfolding right in front of me. I was no longer tied to program schedules. I know that statement was true when I had a VCR but this was radically different. I no longer had to deal with tapes cluttering the house. Or even worse, trying to remember which tape had which program. I no longer had to program show by show. I was free to record without strings attached (with the exception of drive space but a DVD burner solved that one).

Just recently I decided to try out another seemingly revolutionary technology - podcasting. My expectations were low. Most of the publicity podcasting had received centered around the notion that anyone could do it. That sounded to me like a euphemism for “most of the content sucks”. I had visions of teenagers ranting on and on about how they were dumped last night by their boy/girlfriend in front of Orange Julius at the mall last night.

Boy was I wrong.

I am sure there is crap out there but iTunes has shown me the light. I hopped on to the iTunes podcast directory and was greeted by a banner add highlighting three of my favorite letters in the world of broadcast journalism - BBC. Hmmmm. I should check that out for sure. I did. Now I am hooked. I felt that same shiver of excitement I had with the discovery of the DVR. I could now subscribe to programming that I wanted to hear and listen to it on my own time!

You see, I am an NPR junky. The problem with being a gainfully employed NPR junky is that I cannot listen to my favorite programming while I am at work. No longer. I now have access to podcasts from NPR, PRI, WGBH, WNYC, the BBC, the CBC, and more!

Beyond NPR and other great public broadcasters I can listen to great programming from independent sources like the Nation and Democracy Now. I can catch up on futbol with shows like World Soccer Daily and The Treble. I can also discover new music with programs like Music that Matters from KEXP and CBC’s Radio 3 podcast.

Here is a list of my current favorites:

• Radio 3 (CBC)
• Democracy Now
• Digital Planet (BBC)
• Music that Matters (KEXP)
• On the Media (NPR/WNYC)
• Open Source (WGBH)
• RadioNation (the Nation)
• The Changing World (BBC/PRI)
• 606 (BBC Sports)
• The Treble
• The World:Technology (BBC/PRI/WGBH)
• todbits (CBC)
• Here and Now (WGBH)
• World Soccer Daily

I encourage you to go out and find podcasts that meet your own interests. There are podcasts for nearly every subject from art to xbox and just about anything you can think of.

The paradigm is shifting and I can’t wait to see how this plays out.

The IA Summit was truly excellent - again.  This was my fifth year running and the quality never dips.  If you are an information architect or you do anything that involves organizing information in electronic media then you should go.  The IA Summit has been the single greatest source of professional development in my career.  Over the next few weeks I will post comments on the things I learned this year so stay tuned.

Andrew Hinton has given us a brilliant cognitive model to frame the discussion of of the definition of information architecture.