The MONAD Event Manager is already working at a basic level in the Stage 2 MONAD app, the Prototype. You can already schedule events and record events “in the now;” both health events and regular calendar events. Following is a description of the fully realized Event Manager, and along the way I’ll point out the new features that we will add or complete with Stage 3 programming.
Three types of events are created with the Event Manager:
1) Scheduled events are created in the Future. Marked F.
2) Recorded events are created in the Now. Marked N.
3) Recalled events are created in the Past. Marked P.
The MONAD Event Manager does something no other scheduling program does: it allows you to record events “in the now.” Start the recording of an event now and stop the event at a later now. While an event is recording, feel free to edit the event or any other event recorded or scheduled.
Scheduled events (marked F) can be converted to Recorded events if you Acknowledge them in the present, after which they are marked N. Recalled events (marked P) cannot be converted to N or F. If you edit the Start or End time of any event (F, N or P), moving a recalled event from the past into the future, or moving a scheduled event from the future into the past, that event is then marked E for Edited. If you recorded an event in the present (marked N), then move that event into the past or future, it will then be marked E. The reason for these distinctions will become clear later. (By the way, the drawings below are not definitive, just some ideas of where we are headed.)
Right; Event Mode. Modular. Short screen.
Any created event (except all-day events, described later) generates:
1) A color-coded Event Wedge, located in the space between the surface of the Earth and the number dial. This Event Wedge serves as an analog indicator of the start & end of the event (relative to the 24 hour number dial) and also roughly indicates its duration: 1º = 4 minutes, 15º = 1 hour. Consider how if you are recording an event in the now, the midline of the Hour Hand serves as the leading, growing edge of the Event Wedge. Tap the Start field and the Hour Hand moves to the start of the Event Wedge. Tap the End field and the Hour Hand moves to the end of the Event Wedge. Drag the Hour Hand to adjust the Start and End times of an Event Wedge. Each Event Wedge is linked to:
2) An Event Page, displayed whenever the Hour Hand traverses an Event Wedge. The Event Page is either Tall or Short. The Short Page leaves the number dial unobstructed and accessible so you can drag the Hour Hand across Event Wedges, searching for an event to edit or study. The Short Page shows only the most basic Event information, including the Title, Start & End times, Location, and one line of Notes. Tap the Tall button and the Tall Page covers the number dial and shows additional fields of information on the Event Page that can be usefully linked to the Event, including links to People (selected from Contact list), phone calls, text messages, photos, or activate the camera to take a picture that is linked to the event. You can scroll down the Tall Page like a web page. When you’re done perusing or editing that Event, simply Tap the Short button to go back to scanning Event Wedges showing Short Pages.
The value of the Event Wedge is that it serves as an analog indicator of location in planetary time. The Event Wedge is placed in the context of the 4 corners of a solar day (Sun rise, noon, Sun set and midnight.) These are important planetary events we all share and they provide context for the event, aiding memory recall when you search for an event at a later date. Ordinary calendar and scheduling programs arrange their events along a generic (digital) time line, but MONAD arranges Event Wedges along a “time spiral” marked with the natural, reoccurring planetary events that are so important to determing the quality of an event, including the direction and intensity of light from the Sun. The MONAD Event Manager functions as your personal archive, generating a well ordered. and easily searchable accumulation of event records.
Right: Event Mode. Scroll. Showing one week list of hourly events. (Turn phone horizontal.)
One of our main goals is to make the MONAD Event Manager the only scheduling program you will ever need. To that end we will be adding (Stage 3 programming) weekly, monthly and yearly calendar formats, so that you can see your events in the context of these socially relevant periods of time. These formats will usefully summarize data from both regular calendar events and health events. Change the orientation of the phone from vertical to horizontal and this brings up an array of 7 days in a row. Pinch the screen and this compresses the data even more into a monthly calendar format. A yearly calendar format is provided for more long range planning.
As currently set up with the Prototype, you can only import one regular calendar at a time, but Stage 3 programming will allow you to import 4 different color-coded regular calendars at any one time, including the calendars you already use on a daily basis, like your Sport, Church or Work calendars, and interact with them in the MONAD configuration.
Right: Event Mode. All Day events. Scroll.
Any created all-day event generates:
1) A color-coded Dot, which is placed on a 3rd, inner ring of the Calendar Band, in line with the Day Block associated with that event. (An all-day event would form a complete loop around the Earth (inside the number dial) if represented by an Event Wedge.) Arcs represent multiple-days-in-a-row events, like a conference or a vacation. If one or more all-day events is indicated for the current day (one or more color-coded Dots or a Dash in line with the current Day Block), you can access:
2) the Event Page (or Pages) linked to that Dot by accessing an all-day Event Screen, by slightly reverse-pinching the Screen across the number dial, so that the 3rd inner ring of the Calendar Band (instead of the number dial) becomes framed by the screen. This allows you to see a full year of all-day events; 6 months of the past and 6 months of the future. Multiple all-day events (in the form of a modular list) can be indicated on the Short Page if necessary, and then the Tall Page would have an expanded list of all-day events to scroll down.
Right: Event Mode. Roots & Branches. Modular, Short screen.
One of the new features we will be adding with Stage 3 programming is what I call “Roots & Branches.” Use the Roots & Branches feature to search for events associated with a single contact or business account. For instance, if I want to see all the interactions I’ve had with my Programmer over the past 2 years, I would select “Spellman” from my list of Contacts as the Root, and then for Branches I would choose any or all of the following: Meetings, phone calls, text messages, photos, financial transactions, all of the above, etc. Instead of Dots and Dashes displayed on the 3rd ring of the Calendar Band, a Root-like structure labelled “Spellman” would be shown on this 3rd Ring, extending all the way back in time to our first meeting, and in this case it would have at least a couple of hundred branches, radial lines connecting the Root to any Day Block where I had a digital interaction with him. This Root feature will be particularly valuable to follow business accounts and summarize payments, etc.
Health Event Mode
Another important distinction that needs to be addressed is that the MONAD Event Manager offers a Health Event Mode, where Health Events can be Recorded in the present and Recalled in the past but they can not be Scheduled in the future. The data associated with Health Events is stored in the Apple Health Kit data bank, as opposed to the data bank where regular calendars are stored. Health Mode is already set up in the Prototype to allow you to create 4 color-coded categories of Health Events: Sleep, Eat, Move and Think. These categories are associated with the four elements: Earth, Water, Air and Fire. Sleep and Eat are associated with parasympathetic activities; Move and Think are associated with sympathetic activities. As such, the organization of the color-coded Health Event Wedges around the number dial and the rhythmic reoccurrence of various Health Events describes various biorhythms. These personal biorhythms are shown in the context of planetary biorhythms (the solar day, lunar month and seasonal year), specifically involving the distribution of heat and light from the Sun, all around the globe, to a predominantly plant-based and therefore photosynthetic biosphere.
All Day events (in Health Mode) are organized into 4 main Categories: Planet, Family, Tribe, Nation. Planet events include solstices and equinoxes, eclipses and weather. Family includes birthdays and anniversaries. Tribe includes work, church, sports, club, etc. Nation includes national holidays we all celebrate.
The distinction between a “personal day” and a “planetary day” is at the heart of Health Event Mode, which is based on the principles of chronobiology. A planetary day is 24 hours long (the circadian rhythm) and starts and ends at midnight. Your personal day is not necessarily 24 hours long and starts and ends when you go to sleep. In regular calendar Mode, the Event Wedge “gap” is set at 24, while in Health Mode the gap is set differently every day at the time you go to sleep. Your personal noon (marked on the number dial with a red indicator triangle) is placed directly opposite the midpoint of your sleep period. The effort to align your personal day and personal noon with the planetary day and planetary noon is a useful exercise for improving your health.
We’re also going to add Subcategory buttons in Health Event Mode, accessible by holding one of the 4 Health Category buttons. For instance, if you hold the Eat button, this would drop up a subcategory list including: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner, Snack, Water, Alcohol, Drug, etc. Select one of the Subcategories and this would bring up an Event Page customized for speedy and specialized data entry. If you select the subcategory “Water,” the screen form asks you to select type (pure, tea, coffee, soda, etc.) and quantity. We’re also going to add a menstrual tracker associated with the Moon and a number of other exciting and useful features.
There it is: the MONAD Event Manager. Add a few more improvements here and there, and make it all user friendly and effective for organizing your life in planet-centered space-time. The MONAD app will be available for both iOS and Android operating systems.
I hope you are looking forward to using this Event Manager on a daily basis as much as I am. Let’s make every day Earth Day, by restoring the Earth back to the center of our collective attention and awareness, back to the center of a time and date-telling celestial sphere, where every time you check the time or date or consider your schedule, you are reminded of our shared and interdependent existence here on planet Earth. OM