The concept for this Virtual Museum followed visits to many Presidential Museums and Libraries in America. My impression of these is that they were: first, a time capsule of the era these men lived in; secondly, a narrative of what led them to the White House and then, as almost an after thought, a collection of things from their time as President.
What struck me early about these Museums is that except for that last bit nearly anyone would qualify for a Museum. The only reason these men get them is because the Government has an obligation to store their archives and as one of millions in the nation and only one of a half hundred in that job, there are mementos from this moment in history that the general population could be compelled to pay to see.
By most measures I'm nothing extra-ordinary, and yet at the same time I'm anything but ordinary (anyone who would describe me as ordinary clearly doesn't actually know me), so why shouldn't I have a museum?
Well, first off, almost no one knows about my awesomeness. I've spent nearly no time or effort promoting myself. So getting anyone to pay money to visit, a necessary operational requirement in a brick and mortar museum, would be a difficult sell. But a virtual museum to someone who is both ordinary and extra-ordinary, well, that's easy.
So, who am I?
I'm a writer. A deep thinker of both the human experience as well as a futurist. My guiding principal is the better angels that compell us to do the right thing, an increasingly difficult path for many people as our culture slides more and more from capitalism to greed.
And those last four words are key to my second facet. I am a policy wonk. A life-long student of political science I can work through the methods to best spin any policy, but more importantly, when the spin is put aside I can use my practical skills in problem solving to not only identify the root cause of most issues, but the core driver to fix them.
That is definitely not political. In fact most of my ideas are anathema to the political realm and would only be possible in a benevolent dictatorship. Thankfully for the world I'm a theoretical dictator, too lazy to wade through the mass of stupidity and self-interests required to make it happen.
I'm more than happy to wait until society collapses and the few stragglers that flock to me because I'm as off-line in my knowledge as on-line realize the path to society comes through a community of my making.
I just got a bit more interesting to you, didn't I?
I am a sci-fi fan, but almost uninterested in Star Wars. I am a comic book fan, but almost uninterested in Marvel comics. Kirk and Scotty not Spock; Batman and Flash not Superman.
I am a prolific writer and multi-volume published author, but you won't find any of my books in your local bookstore.
I am a sharp wit, a stunning intellectual, but except for a couple of continuing education classes I have no formal education.
So what will you find here?
Well, there's stuff about me, my mother, my upbringing. Having lived in Pembroke, Fergus, Etobicoke, Toronto, Kitchener, Richmond, Sayward, Calgary, Moncton, Guelph, Port Credit and Mississauga you'll get a taste for each of those while I was there, time capsules of those towns, and a sense of what has developed my deep patriotism and understanding of what makes Canada work and what makes it great.
I am the family archivist, so there are pictures and their stories. I was a filmmaker before there was video, a videographer before there was an internet and as I've begun to travel I've also become a chronicler of trips and avid travel photographer.
There are multiple galleries of my collections (and there are a lot of those), and other galleries of my travels and what about them interested me. This means if you're interested in Paris you'll find my recommendations, thoughts and resources for that city.
There's my art, snapshots from my mind, fountains of philosophy, logic, illogic, humour, wit and satire.
And if you pay attention and avoid arguing with me then you'll not only come away with an appreciation for my awesomeness, but you'll be a better person and society will benefit from the new directions you'll have to adopt because they make sense.
And if you don't, well, you're no worse for wear and hopefully I evoked a few reactions out of you, made you re-think or re-define some things about yourself, given you cause for thought, or at the very least proved a mildly amusing distraction. I won't know because you aren't actually in an actual museum and I'm not actually seeing you there or available to interact.
The whole passive on-line museum thingy goes both ways.
SHALL WE BEGIN?
