Saturday, April 06, 2002
The innate poetry of the blog.
in my ongoing quest for "olderwiser" bloggers, periodicallly I check the Ageless Project just to see if there are any new registrants. In linking to someone in NYC who's even older than I am, I discovered a link from that blog to Ron’s amazing poem generator, which uses a software program to make a poem out of anyone's web site. So here's what Ron's cyberpoet did for kalilily time:
kalilily time I were
born on is to make an
Easter Sunday sermon years
older than enough, technology optimism”
to us, the original
post? for you live in.
a chance to buy Hess gas anyway,
since been wrong,
turn on my regular
work on me at least
get that from the
online adult population that poverty But an
Easter people. His methodology is also
honest, open, LETTER
TO a new hip
and stems2000: roughage1970: popping joints1970: our neighbors. As
we live in 1969.That when the
voices and adventuresome will have enough.”
Click here and get a "poem" spun from your blog. I hope it's better than mine.
Comments
in my ongoing quest for "olderwiser" bloggers, periodicallly I check the Ageless Project just to see if there are any new registrants. In linking to someone in NYC who's even older than I am, I discovered a link from that blog to Ron’s amazing poem generator, which uses a software program to make a poem out of anyone's web site. So here's what Ron's cyberpoet did for kalilily time:
kalilily time I were
born on is to make an
Easter Sunday sermon years
older than enough, technology optimism”
to us, the original
post? for you live in.
a chance to buy Hess gas anyway,
since been wrong,
turn on my regular
work on me at least
get that from the
online adult population that poverty But an
Easter people. His methodology is also
honest, open, LETTER
TO a new hip
and stems2000: roughage1970: popping joints1970: our neighbors. As
we live in 1969.That when the
voices and adventuresome will have enough.”
Click here and get a "poem" spun from your blog. I hope it's better than mine.
Comments
A money-saving idea that just might work.
I don't know who Phillip Hollsworth is, but an email I got pointed me to a creative idea he posted on how Americans might band together to stop escalating gasoline prices. Read his post for the whole campaign, but here's his basic point:
For the rest of this year, DON"T purchase ANY gasoline from the two biggest companies (which now are one), EXXON and MOBIL. If they are not selling any gas, they will be inclined to reduce their prices. If they reduce their prices, the other companies will have to follow suit. But to have an impact, we need to reach literally millions of Exxon and Mobil gas buyers. It's really simple to do!! Now, don't whimp out on me at this point...keep reading and I'll explain how simple it is to reach millions of people!!
His methodology is one with which most e-mailers are familiar. I figure if I put his link on my blog, I'll have met my requirement to share this call to arms with ten other people. (Ten, huh? I wonder....)
I tend to buy Hess gas anyway, since it's just down the block from me. I'd be curious to know where Hess gets its gas from.
Comments
I don't know who Phillip Hollsworth is, but an email I got pointed me to a creative idea he posted on how Americans might band together to stop escalating gasoline prices. Read his post for the whole campaign, but here's his basic point:
For the rest of this year, DON"T purchase ANY gasoline from the two biggest companies (which now are one), EXXON and MOBIL. If they are not selling any gas, they will be inclined to reduce their prices. If they reduce their prices, the other companies will have to follow suit. But to have an impact, we need to reach literally millions of Exxon and Mobil gas buyers. It's really simple to do!! Now, don't whimp out on me at this point...keep reading and I'll explain how simple it is to reach millions of people!!
His methodology is one with which most e-mailers are familiar. I figure if I put his link on my blog, I'll have met my requirement to share this call to arms with ten other people. (Ten, huh? I wonder....)
I tend to buy Hess gas anyway, since it's just down the block from me. I'd be curious to know where Hess gets its gas from.
Comments
I have only this to say to Dorkvak:
READ MY BLOGLIPS! Or at least get a blog of your own so that we can deconstruct yours. In the meanwhile, keep writing about us. Even without your linking to us, the curious and adventuresome will track us down. We win anyway.
What a weenie!
"Dorkvak" -- another winner from Jeneane of BlogSisters.
Comments
READ MY BLOGLIPS! Or at least get a blog of your own so that we can deconstruct yours. In the meanwhile, keep writing about us. Even without your linking to us, the curious and adventuresome will track us down. We win anyway.
What a weenie!
"Dorkvak" -- another winner from Jeneane of BlogSisters.
Comments
We forget that we are on the far side of the Divide.
The Digital Divide is loosely defined as the disparity between those who have access to Internet technology and those who have not.
If you live in America and have access to technology that makes it possible for you to be reading this blog (using statistics reported in a survey I read about on alternet.org but for which I lost the actual page link) you are:
--in the 38 percent of the poorest Americans, those earning less than $30,000, or
--in the 82 percent of Americans in households earning $75,000 or more, or
--in the 15 percent of the 65-and-up group, or
--in the 75 percent of the 18-29 age bracket.
In April of 2000, Forrester Research issued a study on the digital divide that said that income is the determining factor for engaging with the Internet, followed by age, education and "technology optimism."
The Pew Internet & American Life Project, which tracks Internet usage and habits, indicates that the online adult population has hit 56 percent, totaling 104 million adults.
So, we are the lucky ones, right? We belong to that better-than-half of the American population that has enough money, enough education, enough youth (heh -- except for me and a few others) and/or enough “technology optimism” to be wired enough into the Google universe. And because of all those things we have enough of, every day brings us closer to understanding how we are the same as, and how we are different from, and how much we can learn from our intra-planetary neighbors. As bloggers, every day gives us a chance to learn how important it is to be humane in a world of governments that seems to be increasingly lacking in humanity.
We don’t only have “enough.” We have more than enough – more than enough, certainly, than those other Americans who don’t have the money because they don’t have decent jobs because they didn’t get a good education because they went to schools in urban neighborhoods where school budgets were too low to support good teachers, and good libraries= and well-equipped science labs and up-to-date computer labs…….
No, access to computers and the Internet will not solve the problems caused by poverty. But computers and web access in every school located in areas of poverty might be able to give children whose lives are confined by that poverty a chance to better understand the choices and the chances that exist in the larger world -- a better chance to understand the cultures of their neighbors, both in the next block and on the next continent. As they learn to journey the web, they would have a unique chance to hear the heart and humanity in the voices of the people of this planet, a chance that exists no where else. And they even might have a chance to develop their own voices and to discover that there are people out there who will listen to what they have to say.
Now, maybe that isn’t enough. But it sure could be something really good!
I think that Weblogs in Education is on the right track. And the kids' version of Small Pieces that David Weinberger is working on is also on the right track. I wish I could figure out how to get them into the main education station.
Comments
The Digital Divide is loosely defined as the disparity between those who have access to Internet technology and those who have not.
If you live in America and have access to technology that makes it possible for you to be reading this blog (using statistics reported in a survey I read about on alternet.org but for which I lost the actual page link) you are:
--in the 38 percent of the poorest Americans, those earning less than $30,000, or
--in the 82 percent of Americans in households earning $75,000 or more, or
--in the 15 percent of the 65-and-up group, or
--in the 75 percent of the 18-29 age bracket.
In April of 2000, Forrester Research issued a study on the digital divide that said that income is the determining factor for engaging with the Internet, followed by age, education and "technology optimism."
The Pew Internet & American Life Project, which tracks Internet usage and habits, indicates that the online adult population has hit 56 percent, totaling 104 million adults.
So, we are the lucky ones, right? We belong to that better-than-half of the American population that has enough money, enough education, enough youth (heh -- except for me and a few others) and/or enough “technology optimism” to be wired enough into the Google universe. And because of all those things we have enough of, every day brings us closer to understanding how we are the same as, and how we are different from, and how much we can learn from our intra-planetary neighbors. As bloggers, every day gives us a chance to learn how important it is to be humane in a world of governments that seems to be increasingly lacking in humanity.
We don’t only have “enough.” We have more than enough – more than enough, certainly, than those other Americans who don’t have the money because they don’t have decent jobs because they didn’t get a good education because they went to schools in urban neighborhoods where school budgets were too low to support good teachers, and good libraries= and well-equipped science labs and up-to-date computer labs…….
No, access to computers and the Internet will not solve the problems caused by poverty. But computers and web access in every school located in areas of poverty might be able to give children whose lives are confined by that poverty a chance to better understand the choices and the chances that exist in the larger world -- a better chance to understand the cultures of their neighbors, both in the next block and on the next continent. As they learn to journey the web, they would have a unique chance to hear the heart and humanity in the voices of the people of this planet, a chance that exists no where else. And they even might have a chance to develop their own voices and to discover that there are people out there who will listen to what they have to say.
Now, maybe that isn’t enough. But it sure could be something really good!
I think that Weblogs in Education is on the right track. And the kids' version of Small Pieces that David Weinberger is working on is also on the right track. I wish I could figure out how to get them into the main education station.
Comments
Thursday, April 04, 2002
The Quick and the Deadly
My mother always tells me that I’m too quick to make decisions, move on things. When a friend of mind came over this afternoon to see if he could fix whatever it was I did to screw up my computer, he made the same sort of comment. After he worked his magic on my computer and left, I started to work on several things at once and almost messed it up again.
I’m trying to remember if I’ve always been too quick and too close to deadly. I know that when I used to write poetry, I would spend slow, easy hours sitting, doodling, ruminating, incubating. Time. I took the time.
I think I began picking up the pace when I started the job from which I recently retired. That was more than twenty years ago. I stayed that much longer than my originally-intended five years because my boss, a woman only a couple of years older than I, gave me plenty of room to innovate, create – as long as I got my regular deadline-sensitive work done. So I learned to juggle many completely unrelated tasks at the same time – each with its own set of deadlines. I had to work quickly, think quickly, decide quickly. I developed a range of unrelated skills. I was good in a crisis, and I loved push-the-envelope kinds of challenges.
I don’t have to be that quick anymore. I can’t function well at that pace anymore. But 20-year old habits are hard to break. As a result, I screw up my computer, among other things.
And I transferred that break-neck pace at which I used to work to blogging. Like I still have something to prove. I don’t have to prove anything. I don’t have to prove anything. I don’t have to prove anything. That’s my new mantra (well, I didn’t really have an old one). I don’t have to prove anything.
Comments
My mother always tells me that I’m too quick to make decisions, move on things. When a friend of mind came over this afternoon to see if he could fix whatever it was I did to screw up my computer, he made the same sort of comment. After he worked his magic on my computer and left, I started to work on several things at once and almost messed it up again.
I’m trying to remember if I’ve always been too quick and too close to deadly. I know that when I used to write poetry, I would spend slow, easy hours sitting, doodling, ruminating, incubating. Time. I took the time.
I think I began picking up the pace when I started the job from which I recently retired. That was more than twenty years ago. I stayed that much longer than my originally-intended five years because my boss, a woman only a couple of years older than I, gave me plenty of room to innovate, create – as long as I got my regular deadline-sensitive work done. So I learned to juggle many completely unrelated tasks at the same time – each with its own set of deadlines. I had to work quickly, think quickly, decide quickly. I developed a range of unrelated skills. I was good in a crisis, and I loved push-the-envelope kinds of challenges.
I don’t have to be that quick anymore. I can’t function well at that pace anymore. But 20-year old habits are hard to break. As a result, I screw up my computer, among other things.
And I transferred that break-neck pace at which I used to work to blogging. Like I still have something to prove. I don’t have to prove anything. I don’t have to prove anything. I don’t have to prove anything. That’s my new mantra (well, I didn’t really have an old one). I don’t have to prove anything.
Comments
Wednesday, April 03, 2002
Burn the Floor
I'm leaving shortly to meet some friends to see a production of Burn the Floor. That should psych me up to get some dancing of my own in this weekend.
Comments
I'm leaving shortly to meet some friends to see a production of Burn the Floor. That should psych me up to get some dancing of my own in this weekend.
Comments
Why is being wrong so hard to admit?
b!X posted something yesterday related to a specific incident of someone pulling a post because he was wrong about something. bIX says: Much is made about how one of the strengths of weblogs is the direct access they give us to a vast expanse of voice. But it's not voice if it's not authentic. And it's not authentic if disdains responsibility.
Why it so hard for most of us to admit that we have been wrong, interpreted something incorrectly, made a assertion based on insufficient thought or evidence. Sometimes we shoot from the hip and totally miss the point. When this happens in our blog, why don't we just write another post that explains what happened rather than "pull" the original post? We are all fallible; we are all human; we all make mistakes every day. Personally, I prefer an "Oops, did I goof!" or a "Wow, I took a wrong turn on that one!" rather than denying, or, just as bad, ignoring that it ever happened or ever was said. Admitting we made a mistake and explaining the turn of mind we took to get that wrong place demonstrates that the sky doesn't fall if we make an effort to create a little more honesty between ourselves and the rest of the world.
"Voice" continues to be a topic of rich discussion on any number of weblogs these days, and I especially was drawn into Sessum's recent post on BlogSisters. Strong, authentic blog voices are potent models for those still struggling to find their own voice, to discover, through writing, who they are at their cores. Some of these strong, authentic blog voices are also honest, open, and responsible. Now that's something we should all strive for -- on and off the Blog.
Comments
b!X posted something yesterday related to a specific incident of someone pulling a post because he was wrong about something. bIX says: Much is made about how one of the strengths of weblogs is the direct access they give us to a vast expanse of voice. But it's not voice if it's not authentic. And it's not authentic if disdains responsibility.
Why it so hard for most of us to admit that we have been wrong, interpreted something incorrectly, made a assertion based on insufficient thought or evidence. Sometimes we shoot from the hip and totally miss the point. When this happens in our blog, why don't we just write another post that explains what happened rather than "pull" the original post? We are all fallible; we are all human; we all make mistakes every day. Personally, I prefer an "Oops, did I goof!" or a "Wow, I took a wrong turn on that one!" rather than denying, or, just as bad, ignoring that it ever happened or ever was said. Admitting we made a mistake and explaining the turn of mind we took to get that wrong place demonstrates that the sky doesn't fall if we make an effort to create a little more honesty between ourselves and the rest of the world.
"Voice" continues to be a topic of rich discussion on any number of weblogs these days, and I especially was drawn into Sessum's recent post on BlogSisters. Strong, authentic blog voices are potent models for those still struggling to find their own voice, to discover, through writing, who they are at their cores. Some of these strong, authentic blog voices are also honest, open, and responsible. Now that's something we should all strive for -- on and off the Blog.
Comments
Tuesday, April 02, 2002
bIX and the internet: born on the same day
On b!X's newly redesigned blog What Planet Is This, he cites dates that ought to be considered holidays for this new world we live in. One of these is when the first network connection was made. He says:
...the Computer History Museum says:
"After installation in September, handwritten logs from UCLA show the first host-to-host connection, from UCLA to SRI, is made on October 25, 1969. The first ‘Log-In’ crashes the IMPs, but the next one works!"
In short: The Internet and I were born on the same day in 1969.
That wasn't my due date for b!X. I was in low-level labor, so the decision was made to induce. That decision must have sealed his fate, since he's been inextricably bound to the net since they discovered each other.
Things like this are what make life so mysteriously magical.
Comments
On b!X's newly redesigned blog What Planet Is This, he cites dates that ought to be considered holidays for this new world we live in. One of these is when the first network connection was made. He says:
...the Computer History Museum says:
"After installation in September, handwritten logs from UCLA show the first host-to-host connection, from UCLA to SRI, is made on October 25, 1969. The first ‘Log-In’ crashes the IMPs, but the next one works!"
In short: The Internet and I were born on the same day in 1969.
That wasn't my due date for b!X. I was in low-level labor, so the decision was made to induce. That decision must have sealed his fate, since he's been inextricably bound to the net since they discovered each other.
Things like this are what make life so mysteriously magical.
Comments
Monday, April 01, 2002
Just a little chuckle for April Fool's Day.
What a difference 30 years makes! (Of course, I don't identify with ALL of the 1970 references!)
1970: long hair
2000: longing for hair
1970: the perfect high
2000: the perfect high mutual fund
1970: keg
2000: ekg
1970: acid rock
2000: acid reflux
1970: moving to California because it’s cool
2000: moving to California because it’s warm
1970: growing pot
2000: growing pot belly
1970: watching John Glenn’s historic space flight with your parents
2000: watching John Glenn’s historic space flight with your children
1970: trying to look like Marlon Brando or Elizabeth Taylor
2000: trying NOT to look like Marlon Brando or Elizabeth Taylor
1970: seeds and stems
2000: roughage
1970: popping pills, smoking joints
2000: popping joints
1970: our president’s struggle with Fidel
2000: our president’s struggle with fidelity
1970: Paar
2000: AARP
1970: killer weed
2000: weed killer
1970: hoping for a BMW
2000: hoping for a BM
1970: the Grateful Dead
2000: Dr. Kevorkian
1970: getting out to a new hip joint
2000: getting a new hip joint
1970: Rolling Stones
2000: kidney stones
1970: screw the system
2000: upgrade the system
1970: passing the driver’s test
2000: passing the vision test
970: "Whatever…"
2000: "Depends"
Comments
What a difference 30 years makes! (Of course, I don't identify with ALL of the 1970 references!)
1970: long hair
2000: longing for hair
1970: the perfect high
2000: the perfect high mutual fund
1970: keg
2000: ekg
1970: acid rock
2000: acid reflux
1970: moving to California because it’s cool
2000: moving to California because it’s warm
1970: growing pot
2000: growing pot belly
1970: watching John Glenn’s historic space flight with your parents
2000: watching John Glenn’s historic space flight with your children
1970: trying to look like Marlon Brando or Elizabeth Taylor
2000: trying NOT to look like Marlon Brando or Elizabeth Taylor
1970: seeds and stems
2000: roughage
1970: popping pills, smoking joints
2000: popping joints
1970: our president’s struggle with Fidel
2000: our president’s struggle with fidelity
1970: Paar
2000: AARP
1970: killer weed
2000: weed killer
1970: hoping for a BMW
2000: hoping for a BM
1970: the Grateful Dead
2000: Dr. Kevorkian
1970: getting out to a new hip joint
2000: getting a new hip joint
1970: Rolling Stones
2000: kidney stones
1970: screw the system
2000: upgrade the system
1970: passing the driver’s test
2000: passing the vision test
970: "Whatever…"
2000: "Depends"
Comments
Sunday, March 31, 2002
Funny Bunny
Got this from Tish. He's a persistent bugger, but if he catches you, you can shake him off if you try really hard. Happy Bunny Day.
Comments
Got this from Tish. He's a persistent bugger, but if he catches you, you can shake him off if you try really hard. Happy Bunny Day.
Comments
We live in a Good Friday world, but we are Easter people.
I'm quoting that from my local newspaper today -- a column by Diane Cameron, who is quoting something a minister said in an Easter Sunday sermon years ago. As Anita and others look at the glass, trying to decide whether it's half-full or half-empty, it's nice to have another metaphor to think about, one that reminds us of our human potential to rise out of our own ashes.
Comments
I'm quoting that from my local newspaper today -- a column by Diane Cameron, who is quoting something a minister said in an Easter Sunday sermon years ago. As Anita and others look at the glass, trying to decide whether it's half-full or half-empty, it's nice to have another metaphor to think about, one that reminds us of our human potential to rise out of our own ashes.
Comments
