Hmm, anything technology is the topic of the day/week/whatever. Where to begin? I remember thinking once when I was younger (and had fewer possession as well) that my favorite things were my electric tea kettle and my hot water bottle. I think this tells me many things about myself - including the fact that I was living in a colder climate than where I am now! Also, that I enjoy drinking warm beverages and having warm toes. Probably not too revealing, but still very true.
Now, I suppose this post ought to be more newer-technology related things, not like central heating, the television, the dvd player, the microwave, and the refrigerator (of which I am a very a big fan - all of them). Technology of this sort is wonderful! I was chatting with someone last weekend about what it must have been like for women living in the DC area in the years before A/C. (Not to mention the amount of clothing those poor women would have been wearing as well!) Every one of these things would have been a techy advancement in its day. I wonder what we will find to be completely indispensable in a few years from now.
All that said, I love my photo ipod, my notebook computer, and really want an Internet radio receiver. I use my flash drive every day and do not know what I would do without the internet in my life.
"Minds are like parachutes; they only function when open"
Thomas R. Dewar
(In my Grade 10 English class, our wonderful teacher Mr Herlihy, had a Salada tea bag assignment. We had to write an essay on the quote on the tea bag we each got. This was my tea bag. I still quite like it!)
Thursday, June 28, 2007
Thursday, June 21, 2007
Flickr mashups
I have been pondering many thoughts and such over the past couple of weeks, several of which have arisen directly from my work on this tutorial. Both, I think, have stemmed from the evidence and nature of creativity.
I have been looking through, at, and for examples of flickr mashups this week and have been amazed and delighted by the things I have seen and heard. I have had some fun with spell with flickr and and spent a bit of time on the fastr game (sort of fun, got old pretty quickly). And fixr is neat- taps into our collective sense of times past and lost only to the backgrounds of our memories.
I think the biggest element of wonder has come from the ones that to me best demonstrate the merging of creative energy/artistic vision with the technical skill/hacking ability to see it realised. I am awed. Flickeur (rhymes with voyeur, they say) is particularly cool. (Enter discussion of Beckett's Krapp's Last Tape here, anyone?)
I am considering downloading the clockr as a screen saver - just the thing to combine the artistic and time-obsessed sides of a personality, eh?
More broadly and well you know existentially speaking, some other thoughts that have been swirling round my mind-
There is perhaps a certain way of looking at the world around us and interpreting that world that not everyone has (maybe they don't want it, I don't know) that is Romantic and to me quite interesting (perhaps I am enough outside of it that I am not filled with all of the angst and whatnot that it necessarily seems to bring these tortured artist types - although this could be part of the reason I am attracted to books written for teenagers, all that remembered and imagined angst). When I see this vision fully realised as a work of art, I am delighted, and filled with wonder at the ability of the human imagination. To combine that with technical skill is something I do not possess, and so am intrigued. This I think is one of the reasons I never went any further in my musical studies - once it got too mathematical and technical for me, I was done for. I am assured by musician friends of mine that this is only at the beginning, the creative and artistic side soon takes over. These were the hurdles I could not jump, although I have not lost the faith.
Perhaps I was meant to follow a different path...
Another rather random thought wave I have been riding recently has to do with nature of 'free spirits' - I think there is something inherently sexy about this. I think not only of Gord Downie, but also other people/men who have held sway over my imagination and fascination at one point or another in my life. Jack Kerouac, Albert Nerenberg, Jim Henson, Jim Morrison, among others. I do not think it is just the outsider mentality, but there is something about the nature of this restlessness and endless searching (whether for spiritual enlightenment, the truth or something akin to it, free expression of inner turmoil, or just plain expressing innate creative genius - all of which exist in many forms) that appeals to me on an important and visceral level.
Okay, now is there something to how you define a free spirit? As with anything, it is all in the definition. Is this something one cannot see in oneself? If you think and say you are cool, you are most likely not so much. There are people I consider to be quite experimental who do not see themselves as outside the moulded norm at all. I may continue to think some more about the nature of cool.
Much of this has in fact stemmed from a male friend of mine who referred to Gord as a Sex God. This is perhaps not the first term I would use. Then again, definitions come into play - what exactly is a Sex God? Can anyone help me out with this? People with whom I work, they have may have had enough of my musings on this topic. I have every intention of writing a Gord-free post on this blog - one of these days!
In discussion with my friends, particularly with my male friends, there is a certain element of incredulity on their part - is it the nature of man, or is it just that they are not at all accustomed to my speaking about these things, in this way? Maybe, as Grandpa Simpson would say, a little from column A a little from column B.
Maybe it is time to live up to my blog name and have nothing more to say.
So, for once I will forgo the song lyrics, and quote from a children's book (and a beginning reader at that).
"When Bobby North came to his new school, he found that he was the smallest guy in his class.
He found that action figures were not cool.
He found that white coats were completely not cool.
'Okay', he said, 'so what is cool?'" Jamie McEwan
I have been looking through, at, and for examples of flickr mashups this week and have been amazed and delighted by the things I have seen and heard. I have had some fun with spell with flickr and and spent a bit of time on the fastr game (sort of fun, got old pretty quickly). And fixr is neat- taps into our collective sense of times past and lost only to the backgrounds of our memories.
I think the biggest element of wonder has come from the ones that to me best demonstrate the merging of creative energy/artistic vision with the technical skill/hacking ability to see it realised. I am awed. Flickeur (rhymes with voyeur, they say) is particularly cool. (Enter discussion of Beckett's Krapp's Last Tape here, anyone?)
I am considering downloading the clockr as a screen saver - just the thing to combine the artistic and time-obsessed sides of a personality, eh?
More broadly and well you know existentially speaking, some other thoughts that have been swirling round my mind-
There is perhaps a certain way of looking at the world around us and interpreting that world that not everyone has (maybe they don't want it, I don't know) that is Romantic and to me quite interesting (perhaps I am enough outside of it that I am not filled with all of the angst and whatnot that it necessarily seems to bring these tortured artist types - although this could be part of the reason I am attracted to books written for teenagers, all that remembered and imagined angst). When I see this vision fully realised as a work of art, I am delighted, and filled with wonder at the ability of the human imagination. To combine that with technical skill is something I do not possess, and so am intrigued. This I think is one of the reasons I never went any further in my musical studies - once it got too mathematical and technical for me, I was done for. I am assured by musician friends of mine that this is only at the beginning, the creative and artistic side soon takes over. These were the hurdles I could not jump, although I have not lost the faith.
Perhaps I was meant to follow a different path...
Another rather random thought wave I have been riding recently has to do with nature of 'free spirits' - I think there is something inherently sexy about this. I think not only of Gord Downie, but also other people/men who have held sway over my imagination and fascination at one point or another in my life. Jack Kerouac, Albert Nerenberg, Jim Henson, Jim Morrison, among others. I do not think it is just the outsider mentality, but there is something about the nature of this restlessness and endless searching (whether for spiritual enlightenment, the truth or something akin to it, free expression of inner turmoil, or just plain expressing innate creative genius - all of which exist in many forms) that appeals to me on an important and visceral level.
Okay, now is there something to how you define a free spirit? As with anything, it is all in the definition. Is this something one cannot see in oneself? If you think and say you are cool, you are most likely not so much. There are people I consider to be quite experimental who do not see themselves as outside the moulded norm at all. I may continue to think some more about the nature of cool.
Much of this has in fact stemmed from a male friend of mine who referred to Gord as a Sex God. This is perhaps not the first term I would use. Then again, definitions come into play - what exactly is a Sex God? Can anyone help me out with this? People with whom I work, they have may have had enough of my musings on this topic. I have every intention of writing a Gord-free post on this blog - one of these days!
In discussion with my friends, particularly with my male friends, there is a certain element of incredulity on their part - is it the nature of man, or is it just that they are not at all accustomed to my speaking about these things, in this way? Maybe, as Grandpa Simpson would say, a little from column A a little from column B.
Maybe it is time to live up to my blog name and have nothing more to say.
So, for once I will forgo the song lyrics, and quote from a children's book (and a beginning reader at that).
"When Bobby North came to his new school, he found that he was the smallest guy in his class.
He found that action figures were not cool.
He found that white coats were completely not cool.
'Okay', he said, 'so what is cool?'" Jamie McEwan
Saturday, June 9, 2007
Numéro Twenty
Last post on "I have nothing to say" you learned a little bit about my interest in Gordon Downie. If you are not familiar with this man, here is something from his website's biography section:
'While the occupation that Gord Downie lists on his passport is "musician", he could just as easily have cited "songwriter", "poet", "video director", or even, existentially speaking, "restless spirit".'
(http://www.wienerart.net/index_adv.html).
For this assignment, there was really no question in my mind that I had to add a video element and it would be of one of the best things I have watched recently on youtube. It is a late night CBC TV program(me) called The Hour and they recently devoted an entire special edition show to the Hip. Very nice interview, and of course, great music off their latest album. And, if you search youtube for "The Tragically Hip" you will find enough other things to watch and to listen to - enough to fill a weekend (trust me on this one) . And , by the way, the band are completely cool with people's recording their live shows and sharing the videos (and they always have been).
Now, what song shall I quote for this entry? So many to select from... but since the heat is the way it is at the moment, and with our home's A/C also being the way it is (sigh), here is the one for today:
"It's too hot to sleep. Let's gather 'round the fan.
We can't do nothin' 'bout the heat,
So let's just do what we can
And everything'll be just fine.
Just dream of the Lofty Pines."
Gordon Downie
'While the occupation that Gord Downie lists on his passport is "musician", he could just as easily have cited "songwriter", "poet", "video director", or even, existentially speaking, "restless spirit".'
(http://www.wienerart.net/index_adv.html).
For this assignment, there was really no question in my mind that I had to add a video element and it would be of one of the best things I have watched recently on youtube. It is a late night CBC TV program(me) called The Hour and they recently devoted an entire special edition show to the Hip. Very nice interview, and of course, great music off their latest album. And, if you search youtube for "The Tragically Hip" you will find enough other things to watch and to listen to - enough to fill a weekend (trust me on this one) . And , by the way, the band are completely cool with people's recording their live shows and sharing the videos (and they always have been).
Now, what song shall I quote for this entry? So many to select from... but since the heat is the way it is at the moment, and with our home's A/C also being the way it is (sigh), here is the one for today:
"It's too hot to sleep. Let's gather 'round the fan.
We can't do nothin' 'bout the heat,
So let's just do what we can
And everything'll be just fine.
Just dream of the Lofty Pines."
Gordon Downie
Thing Number Five
I have spent some time (probably far too much, in all honesty) browsing through Flickr. There is definitely some cool stuff there. I had, of course, used that site before (to look at pictures of friends and of our godchildren in Indiana) but had never gone in search of something specific like this. It was not so easy finding one I really wanted to use. First of all, I wanted something (just this once!) not of Gord (as I have told my staff, I cannot blame Gord Downie for everything). But, then, if not him then what? Several thought came to mind - and then I had to keep reminding myself who else might be reading this blog (Hi Albert!) So- perhaps my hometown? Could not find one I loved that was not so specific to the place that it could not be very readily identified. Maybe my favo(u)rite spot in the world (or at least one of them I could find a photo on the web of?)? This was not too easy to find, sans people I do not know. So, I went with a familiar place that brings back lots of memories for me, without its being too obvious where it is.
Now, the video was a different thing all together. And it is (lo and behold - listen to the interview part of the video and you will understand that) Thing Number Twenty and thus a new posting is on its way for that.
"It's four in the morning, the end of December / I'm writing you now just to see if you're better" Leonard Cohen
Now, the video was a different thing all together. And it is (lo and behold - listen to the interview part of the video and you will understand that) Thing Number Twenty and thus a new posting is on its way for that.
"It's four in the morning, the end of December / I'm writing you now just to see if you're better" Leonard Cohen
Monday, June 4, 2007
Lesson one
and two as well, I guess.
OK, so this is indeed my first experience with online learning, and my first ever blog posting. (The "hipgirl" is not necessarily meant to be ironic, but there you go).
Looking at the 7 1/2 habits as presented in Lesson One, and deciding that I do not need to sign a contract with myself to be dedicated to this course (9 weeks, is it?), I will share my thoughts up to here.
I agree completely with the thought from Lesson 4 that you should not "say it or think it unless you want it to be true". Really, do not put out into the Universe anything negative and nothing negative will be sent back to (or is it at?) you. I know that as easy as this sounds, and as true and as vital as I think and believe and know that it is, it is also not so simple. But enough about that (for now).
The most difficult challenge for me is going to be finding the time to sit myself down to do this. Time always gets away from me and when I do discover a "spare" few minutes, either I find something that needs to be done right that moment - or it finds me. This may be the biggest challenge to any self-paced learning system, I suppose, but I have many friends who possess far more of the planning and organisational skills necessary for this sort of thing than I. However, since we are only doing good, positive thoughts, I will have lots of time and it will be fun - because habit 7 1/2 is play. And that I do know how to do!
Also, I know from some of my experiences in my life outside of work that Habit 7 is truly the key to learning something - if one needs to show someone else how to do something, she needs to have a firm grasp on how that move or stance or turn or whatever is done.
So, my plan for the week is now set: Make time for what needs to get done (I hope to broaden this to include much more than learning about 2.0 stuff) and keep those positive thoughts/words/actions flowing.
"There's no simple explanation for anything important any of us do..." The Tragically Hip
OK, so this is indeed my first experience with online learning, and my first ever blog posting. (The "hipgirl" is not necessarily meant to be ironic, but there you go).
Looking at the 7 1/2 habits as presented in Lesson One, and deciding that I do not need to sign a contract with myself to be dedicated to this course (9 weeks, is it?), I will share my thoughts up to here.
I agree completely with the thought from Lesson 4 that you should not "say it or think it unless you want it to be true". Really, do not put out into the Universe anything negative and nothing negative will be sent back to (or is it at?) you. I know that as easy as this sounds, and as true and as vital as I think and believe and know that it is, it is also not so simple. But enough about that (for now).
The most difficult challenge for me is going to be finding the time to sit myself down to do this. Time always gets away from me and when I do discover a "spare" few minutes, either I find something that needs to be done right that moment - or it finds me. This may be the biggest challenge to any self-paced learning system, I suppose, but I have many friends who possess far more of the planning and organisational skills necessary for this sort of thing than I. However, since we are only doing good, positive thoughts, I will have lots of time and it will be fun - because habit 7 1/2 is play. And that I do know how to do!
Also, I know from some of my experiences in my life outside of work that Habit 7 is truly the key to learning something - if one needs to show someone else how to do something, she needs to have a firm grasp on how that move or stance or turn or whatever is done.
So, my plan for the week is now set: Make time for what needs to get done (I hope to broaden this to include much more than learning about 2.0 stuff) and keep those positive thoughts/words/actions flowing.
"There's no simple explanation for anything important any of us do..." The Tragically Hip
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
