To Recap, Modern Guilt, Headstands, and French Cuisine

"I have no special talent, I am only passionately curious."
It has to start with a recap, because without a recap, the Lawson Review is nothing but a new blog, a new thought, a new glimpse, but nothing more, no back story, no history. The Lawson Review has a history, but it is a difficult one to find on the internet, even though it never resided anywhere but the infranet. The Lawson Review was a voice of reason calling out likes of various corporate evils that exist with relation to the physical world and the overall ecological state of our modern era. It was a review not only of simple pleasures in life, but also a news option for those that wanted a glimpse of stories in relation to the history of industrialization and political powers, both domestic and international. The Lawson Review also occasionally made fart jokes. So its contributors as well as its readers felt comfortable as a small community. It felt like a powerful group. Then we all got very, very busy in our lives outside the infraweb. We let our guard down. We were still tied in the same story, but we did not watch the gates closely, and the somewhere between a few first born children, a couple travels, a bout of cancer, a general increase in lands that do not involve being near a computer, between the things of life, the core that was charged to stay vigilant decided there were not to be frivolous commitments when we had very real things going on... we would get back to the Lawson Review when we could, but in the mean time it was not going anywhere, and we would build on it soon. Later. Sometime. Then we got hacked. And while this core membership represents years, decades of academic research combined with an overall intensity for life that results in a birth of knowledge and history, none of us are that good with infrastructure. We don't really want to be. We will find ways around it... but this didn't work for us. In a moment of just checking in, seeing if anything had happened while I was on vacation... gone. Completely shut down. Vanished. Crap. Like we were never there at all. We assumed the system would hold at a very least backups somewhere, even if we had to go back in and repost them all... but no, they are gone. everyone of them. There are traces on the web, here and there, but for the most part, we had vanished. It was a very sobering reality. Years of work, years of thoughts, some pure rubbish, but others that connected us, even in the absurdity. We are a people who can appreciate the absurd, even while we are mowing the lawn. Especially when we are mowing the lawn. So be patient as we rebuild our voice. Our "brand" in the parlance of our time. Everyone is out there building a brand. Or following a brand. But are people reading? That is often what comes up in our round table discussions over rye. Are people reading any more? Sure there is a core, but what about the population? Depending on what statistics you read, nearly half of collage graduates say they will never read a book again in their lives. U.S. students score 25th for reading internationally. 80% of families do not buy books. 50% can not read over an 8th grade level. The stats are frightening. We are concerned, and while we realize that reading the internet is not reading books, but if we can as a whole contribute to the dialogue, and help spark the interest that we can lead people somewhere. Between our collective histories, we have many maps to show, and somewhere along the way we hope to make a few people more curious. "I have no special talent, I am only passionately curious." And so we review the likes of politicians, electronics, headstands, stretching, sailboats, out-door adventuring activities, the current tight clothing fad, and most things that are easily overlooked in our day to day, things that can make life better, and things that if not kept in check can make things worse. We are essentially map makers. Social map makers. We are trying to explore and see what is out there and offer a guide to what pitfalls to avoid on the way to the various treasures. We are good at find them. We are also good at learning to avoid the shit in the trail. It is sad that we have been hacked, but we are not concerned. It did not take long. We are all still somewhat on vacation, but we are checking in more regularly. Join us.

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