They make me Happy tonight!

ABC Television | Going Postal via kwout

and then mad... to be continued?  aaargh

A day later: I didn't comment right away, partly because I was miffed to have the rest postponed (but which I now find great because it means more happy next Saturday, and I can think slowly about the first part); and partly because my nephew was visiting and we found Star Trek Voyager (which he hadn't yet seen) on another channel.

So: Characters convincing? Yes. Although Vetinari is physically darker in my imagination, his character was well done. Mr Groat's odour and self-medication didn't seem to be conveyed. Plot faithful? yes. Does the essence of Ankh Morpork transmit to non-AM-readers? Now how could I possibly know that?

Hoping to interview JJ Drinkwater: Planning preliminary research

I'm a dreamer. 2-365 by Chelseaography. CC: BY-NC 2.0

Today, I finally tagged as questions I would ask a page that has been hanging around in my open tabs for goodness knows how long:

So, its 2.5 years since EppieBlack interviewed JJ Drinkwater and I'm wondering whether any of JJ's views have changed since (at the time he had been through 3years conversation about libraries roles in SL)?  For example: Does he still think that SL is a good environment for making collections accesible - interest-wise and creating inspiration? How does he evaluate the success of an event and/or an exhibit?  On what does he currently invest his time in SL now?  They touched on qualitative measures ("use a lot" - which?) and what is not possible to count/track - has any of that changed?  He mentioned building the online catalogue (and I recall being impressed recently, must look again) - has that been worthwhile, what was most important with it and what would he recommend for others? How did he land the director's role at Caledon libraries?  He managed volunteers, orchestrated exhibit schedule, ran events -- what kind of learning did that involve? what mistakes? 

While I do search my tags, I don't tend to find time to check it for things to do, but I do see my blogger drafts.

So, to be sure my questions would be the best I can ask, if I find an opportunity, I figure:

1. First I would want to run around and check the Caledon Libraries, 
2. see and analyse current exhibits. 
3. Join the group/s perhaps - and from now I should 
4. document all instances where I see adverts of Caledon Library events. 
5. Definitely explore the online catalogue and 
6. read more of what Drinkwater has written.  
7. Then refine my questions and 
8. seek an interview

We have a Plan!

by lucyb_22. CC:BY-NC-SA-2.0

Projected, recorded, uploaded, embedded

Enjoy the music with me? thanks to Alex Ross and others (see below)?



"The first part of Wagner's "Flying Dutchman" Overture, as played by the New World Symphony under the direction of Michael Tilson Thomas, at the New World Center on Jan. 28, 2011. The image is being projected on a seven-thousand-square-foot wall; the sound is heard over a network of 167 speakers." [Youtube video description]

Or wonder at technology with me?

• Miami's New World Centre's Wallcast projects concert hall performances outside. (Frank Gehry designed the center, who can we thank for the sound and simulcast tech?)
• [?unidentified device] captures the cast in excellent quality.
• YouTube lets Alex Ross upload the recording and me embed it here.
• Blogging programs like WordPress helps people share stuff online
• Extra-blogging stuff like tracking back builds conversation
• Repository software like dSpace helps institutions collect and preserve scholarly writing.
• Online courses with course managment software... hm, can't really promote the one used for current course as I'm not fond, tend to prefer Moodle.

Or delight in social factors?

• What explains the expensive projection of performances outside the hall, to the public for free? I can guess why people would use the Soundscape - I want to go!
• Alex was so impressed (?) he recorded, uploaded, blogged and wrote. AH! to "invite people in" - Alex answers my first question.
• The beauty of connections: dkl, a scholar interested in "combination of sight and sound in musical experience, and the use of technology to alter their combination", gets caught by Alex's article and later blogs about it. (And dkl "gets" linking in his first post!)
• Everyone is sharing all this stuff online.

So maybe it is just one factor in different dimensions: People love to share what makes them zing.

Or my story:

In which Charles Sturt University School of Information Studies offer a course by distance (that (if I finish) would qualify me to be a reference librarian), in which John Kennedy, Bob Pymm and Sue Terry authored the Collections subject asking students to explore repository software designer DSpace, who share use case examples including George Mason University's MARS, who preserve blog posts of at least one of their associate professors, Dan Cohen who (among many wonderful contributions to online scholarship) writes and talks inspiringly about the value of the blogging genre for scholarly communication (see why I listened for an hour!?). Dan uses WordPress and his team designed Zotero and and where was I? ... oh yes, Dan's blog captures trackbacks so I noticed dkl's first post at Spooky and the Metronome, where he grabs my attention: music+image, a mix of styles in one post, his personal story, scholarly meditations, and darn him for linking instead of embedding the above video himself.  Because on seeing Alex Ross' uploaded video of the projected performance - musing at the capacity to see and hear without being there or then, I needed to see it all shifted that extra step in time and virtual space, and now I've added the dimension of posting from Australia.

Power of social search + Google Image + fortuitous error?

echofon displayed for me a puzzle [RT] from toddtyrtle:

Anyone know what kind of plant/tree has this type of seed pod? - tweeted by andycaster via kwout

Curious whether I could track it down I wasn't having any luck with a variety of descriptive words, so I skipped to a guess and google image search. My guess was wrong, but luckily it caught an equally half-wrong? description at istockphoto.

BTW do *any* maples have similar seeds?

or is this a case of fortuitous error?
I'd say serendipitous if not for discovering Walpole's original meaning? 

After Maple the description included "London plane tree". On adding that to the search google brought up a similar query at arboristsite to which Sylvia had suggested a sycamore and linked Virginia Tech's Department of Forest Resources and Environmental Conservation VTreeID Factsheet of American Sycamore.  Great database, with pictures of tree, leaf and seed. In this case, although it is difficult to tell because in andy's pic the seed is exploded, it still looks fluffier than the American, and more like the Arizona Sycamore I think.  Sadly the database itself doesn't seem to include description of seeds, so from it I can't learn how to describe seeds.

Back at Google Image Search I checked other images of London Plane and Sycamore seed photos - and I'm leaning towards Sycamore.

I was impressed with the power of social answer finding (?social search engine) allowed me by Flickr a few years ago, when I uploaded a photo called "what flower is this" and 17 months later (possibly after I added it to a group) was surprised to find an answer but andycaster had his answer in ... 35 minutes?

What kind of Embodied Cognition can help me produce an essay?

Can someone own up to tweeting about this blogpost by Stephanie Willen Brown: CogSci Librarian: Embodied Cognition?

I read:

"Embodied Cognition...[see Stephanie's post for an explanation if you need it]...article in the January/February issue of Scientific American Mind: Body of Thought by Siri Carpenter...[a couple of examples]:

• Just in the past few years studies have shown that holding a hot cup of coffee or being in a comfortably heated room warms a person's feelings toward strangers ...
• [T]hat sitting on a hard chair turns mild-mannered undergraduates into hard-headed negotiators"

 and have been wondering ever since how essay writing powers might be embodied (so I can switch them on).

"When Books Talk Back" by Vaun Raymond (2007), licensed for re-use under this (by-nc-sa) Creative Commons License. via kwout

Blogging towards an essay?

I do find blogpost writing conducive to thinking - although it is frustrating because it takes so long, so maybe there is something in the idea in my last post to work on ideas here - I don't even have to post them, just being in the frame might help.

Downside to that idea is that part of my focus at the Blogger Edit Post screen is to try for a writing style that suits blog-reading (yeah ok I'm not great at that)... whereas my goal for school is an essay.  Some parts of this are a positive.  From what I understand (in theory if not my own practice):

• In neither case is a long sentence desirable.
• In both a logical flow of argument is desirable.
• I'm remembering phrases that probably apply to both, like
• "show, don't tell" and in both cases link it (though the citation method differs)
• and "Trim the fat"
• .... anything else?

Aside from citation methods, and blog=personal .v. essay=impersonal, what distinctions between essays and blogposts should I keep in mind if I work up my essay in a blogpost?

Surfing serendipity: Austenology & Me, me

Thanks to flexnib's tweeted meme for Day 6 of #blogeverydayofjune I surfed the backtrail (< normblog < Harriet < cornflower < callmemadam < Bookish NYC ) to discover new input for my Fun First subscriptions:

A blog collecting, explaining and discussing "Jane Austen's life, times and works": Austenonly

About and Contents « austenonly via kwout

and its sister site A Jane Austen Gazetteer from where I can "virtually visit the real places that Jane Austen and her family inhabited in reality".

A Jane Austen Gazetteer via kwout

Along the way I found someone else who had seen the "me" "me" in "meme", Harriet Devine:

Harriet Devine's Blog: A Reading Meme via kwout

Before answering this meme's questions I have my own to ask:

1. How often do you even open a meme post by someone else?
2. About how much of that post would you really READ rather than scan?

Image via Wikipedia

Do you snack while reading? 

Not since I reduced my carb intake. But before that quite often, unless it was a meal or there were no snacks available.

What is your favourite drink while reading?

Tea: Daintree if available; white; no sugar

Do you tend to mark your books while you read, or does the idea of writing in books horrify you?

I have not discovered a way to be certain to retain the material I want from a book, but marking a note *in* the book definitely does not seem the way to get the point *out* of it.

How do you keep your place? Bookmark? Dog-ears? Laying the book open flat?

Bookmark of some sort, if I can't get at the supply (which are in a magazine box on the non-fiction shelves which are in mum's room which has been converted from a sitting room).

Fiction, non-fiction or both?

Both, although I'm less likely to be spell-bound by non-fiction.

Do you tend to read to the end of a chapter or can you stop anywhere?

Wherever I am not in the grip of the author's words.

Are you the type of person to throw a book across the room or on the floor if the author irritates you?

Although I couldn't say for absolute certain not, but I don't think so: I might growl and close the book with a snap but place it down with exceptional restraint.

If you come across an unfamiliar word, do you stop and look it up right away?

If I absolutely cannot make sense of the point without doing so, or if it seems like it might be an interesting word. Though I do remember when I was a teen, reading Leslie Charteris' Saint books I kept notepaper and pen as bookmark and jotted down every unfamiliar word to look up when I got out of bed the next day. I am sure he made some words up.

What are you currently reading?

Davies, C. (2005). Finding and Knowing: Psychology, Information and Computers. London: Routledge.

Parker, R. S. (1977). Effective Decisions and Emotional Fulfillment. Chicago: Nelson-Hall.

White, H. S. (1992). Ethical Dilemmas in Libraries: A Collection of Case Studies. New York: G.K. Hall.

What is the last book you bought?

A pile of weeded books on librarianship

Do you have a favourite time/place to read?

When I'm awake.

Do you prefer series books or stand-alones?

Neither/both. I like the story to be told well, without waffle, whether it takes one book or more or less.

Is there a specific book or author you find yourself recommending over and over?

People I know are too different, they all relate to different things. But my catalogue can be sorted to show those I give highest rating, though they're not otherwise sorted by genre.

How do you organize your books (by genre, title, author’s last name, etc.)?

It depends on the space available. Non-fiction (and some fiction and games) by Dewey; Children's separate and then by size/shape/reading-age; General fiction alphabetical by title; My fiction roughly by author's last name but less favoured works are relegated floorwards regardless. And then there are the piles of recently obtained books as yet uncatalogued.

Barbara’s additional question: background noise or silence?

As my sons would report, it doesn't really matter once I'm reading.

Just in case anyone from CULLB602C wants to pick up the meme, here are those questions sans answers:
Do you snack while reading? 
What is your favourite drink while reading?
Do you tend to mark your books while you read, or does the idea of writing in books horrify you?
How do you keep your place? Bookmark? Dog-ears? Laying the book open flat?
Fiction, non-fiction or both?
Do you tend to read to the end of a chapter or can you stop anywhere?
Are you the type of person to throw a book across the room or on the floor if the author irritates you?
If you come across an unfamiliar word, do you stop and look it up right away?
What are you currently reading?
What is the last book you bought?
Do you have a favourite time/place to read?
Do you prefer series books or stand-alones?
Is there a specific book or author you find yourself recommending over and over?
How do you organize your books (by genre, title, author’s last name, etc.)?
Barbara’s additional question: background noise or silence?

From Sandra's ideas playing to brains crooking

Ah yes, now I pinned this post to commemorate Sandra having introduced me to Crooked Brains, which does indeed consume time if you're not careful. (Sandra's Playing with Ideas hasn't been updated since July 14 but there's usually something interesting at her Lyrics Game. And Sandra also lets us know when she updates her unschooling pages.

PLAYING WITH IDEAS: The Churches of Book Worship, and other fantastic realities via kwout

Codex Seraphinianus

or: the serendipity value of working at a different computer

As I didn't want to shut down the game I have on my own computer, and as the boys are away for the weekend, I thought I'd use one of their computers to get some work done.

Of course none of my browser tabs are homepages here, nor am I automatically signed in to the tools I use most frequently, so: on accessing my protopage I land at the public index page rather than my usual private start page. That's fine, I'll do a crossword, study a chess tactic and maybe play with or edit or refresh some of the widgets.

Oooh what's this on the Article of the Day widget (provided by The Free Dictionary)?

Codex Seraphinianus - encyclopedia article about Codex Seraphinianus. via kwout

Sounds interesting. Perhaps I'll see if I can look at it next time I'm near the State Library of South Australia.

Has any reader seen it and want to tell me what you thought?

From wood to joy

First the path:
Sandra Dodd's Wood thinking-stick (my first thought? How much wood would a woodchuck chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood? which I think is harder to type fast than say fast. second: mum's old camphor wood chest. third: I want to make a bookshelf for my paperbacks.)
--> Stephanie's post on her son's woodworking (at which I studiously avoid reflecting once again on gunplay)
--> her earlier post about late nights & trying to go to bed earlier (where I commented in sympathy: our nights are late, and I'd like them to be earlier - breathe out regret over the long-term visitors who destroyed our better habit a couple of years ago)
--> subscription to Stephanie's blog, and mildly curious about another post: The #1 song the day you were born discovered from
-->Josh Hosler that on the day I was born Judy in disguise (with glasses) was #1 in the US.
-->But what was #1 here in Australia? According to Oz Net Music Chart it was Sadie the cleaning lady by John Farnham. Lovely voice. Vivid character description - superficial characterisation. Ugh makes me cringe.
-->I did find a video at YouTube of the original performance but I hesitated to embed it here because it pre-dates sympathetic music-video and the dancers made me cringe worse than the lyrics - what a dreadful juxtaposition to the song's theme - so lacking in congruence.

So
<-- however Joy's birthday #1 was "Joy to the world" and that I've added to my happy songs playlist.

Cotton-eye Joe

♫ Where did you come from? Where did you go? ♫
Remember the Rednex lyrics?

Completely irrelevant but the above line has been repeating through my mind when a result in an 'any' Pagebull search on my screenname



reminded me to check out MyBlogLog to see whether anyone has visited my blog lately.



Sure'nuff some few had! <-giggle,clap-> And it was entertaining to see where visitors had come from and where they went

• google searches for:
  
• supunna picta (then followed my link to USQ)
• citing YouTube (no, I haven't answered that yet, but I'm still planning to work it out UPDATE: yes, I've made a few guesses)
• unschooler teen books (fairly sure my collation of library stuff wouldn't have answered that search)
  
• "with that moon language"
• pageflakes protopages netvibes
• fun mmorpgs (did my story about my first experience help?)
• eclecticlibrary even tagged my posts on citing blog posts & comments - is eclectic library actually Morgan of librariesinteract.info?

That was fun. I don't appear to get enough visits to warrant a pro account with MyBlogLog though I have preliminary approval from the boys to do so whenever I like because they enjoyed my excitement about my blog being visited!

Like supermarkets or anything 2.0? You *have* to see this...

Thanks to Library COGs, via Chadwick (InfoSciPhi) and I'd have seen neither without feeding from a Bloglines search on "Carnival of the Infosciences"

From blog design to being loved

After admiring Colin's (on the glade) blog's design I started clicking from myBloglines to the sources themselves to try to work out what I like most in blog designs. I like cool, clean and simple, but I also love nifty things (attractive header, tabbed pages, sidebar widgets, even personalised icons) - my challenges, should I choose to take it further than contemplation, is to find my own design and then work out how to make it happen.

Today I found Elliott Black's Top 10, and although I don't really agree with those 10, I enjoyed a comment's pointer to Veerle, and also Powazek's Thoughts.

Then things got really interesting: not only were a couple of Powazek's thoughts entertaining, but an interestingly publicly intimate one sent me to subvert with Heather Gold (who I've added to my Bloglines).

Apparently during this Intimacy rundown (whose podcast and possibly video is still to come) Michelle Tea

talked about being loved for a day by love artist Kathy Izzo and what a difference it made to her day, knowing she was loved as she worked in a book shop

I'm definitely curious.

However the destination that tripped this from a diverting skim to a reason to blog was the poem that Heather Gold read: I Love You With Technology. I'm curious what my friend Cecilia's opinion of it would be. Can't relate from personal experience but I was definitely intrigued.

IT goddesses

If I'd had daughters instead of sons, this calendar would be my first purchase.



I love the eye catching way it "smashes through perceptions of geeky technologists", and in the process aims to:

# Raise awareness of the diversity of Women in IT
# Raise money for non profit groups that run initiatives to encourage females to take up technology studies and to enter technology careers

23Things #9 Finding Feeds

I'm not in interested in fishing for more feeds - I'm already caught up in the internet equivalent of the East Australian Current.

I have a button (bookmarklet) in my Firefox toolbar, which gets a work out thanks to serendipity.

So rather than exploring, I took a quick look only at Technorati (interesting, social - but I couldn't see it offering anything I need beyond del.icio.us?), Feedster (restful on the eyes), Topix (I did indeed find local news) and Syndic8 (?)

My easiest source of feeds? Serendipitous surfing.

Supercoolpic

Go see it, really it is supercool.

Thanks zoomquilt team, and whichever social bookmarker led me there... anyone have any idea which bookmarking community has tagged and rated zoomquilt's supercoolpic?

And does anyone want to advise me whether to just stick to one (ie del.icio.us) tagging tool, or whether to use a suite of them - maybe for different purposes?
Which one/s?

Ms Stackman fun

I wonder if I'll ever get time to find out whether Ms Stackman is fun?

xrefer brainteaser: learning ... guessing ... knew

I knew that Judas Iscariot was the name of the disciple who betrayed Jesus Christ for thirty pieces of silver.

I knew that a "buttinski" is a 'Mr Pointy Nose', one who interferes, a meddler ...?a social worker?

I guessed that Williams Shakespeare was the dramatist wrote the words "Cowards die many times before their deaths"

I described a "martinet" as a bossy-boots, a tyrant, a control-freak, an iron-gusset, one who insists things be done by the book - is that close enough to ""?

I learned [again] that a "Dutch nightingale" is a frog.

I guessed from vague recollection that a dodo was a large bird native to Mauritius though I wasn't certain it wasn't Madagascar [it wasn't]

I learned that the poem "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner" about a sailor shooting an albatross - was written by Coleridge and thanks to the electronic text center of the University of Virginia Library I now know the source of the phrase " Water, water, every where, Nor any drop to drink."

I guessed that the Roman deity Janus had two faces, though I'm going to have to re-check who that was.

I described a "dotard" as a dotty old person.

I learned that the American politician was known as "the Illinois gorilla" and "the original gorilla" was Abraham Lincoln.  Issy & Lotsofstuff recognised that piece of information, Issy thinking they recognised it from the Simpsons.

Books become art

I thank Library Stuff's latest Carnival of Infosciences for opening my eyes to Michael Whittaker's brilliant idea at the Portland Public Library, Maine.

It is wonderfully innovative: creating art, an attractive new collection, from weeded books that would have to be trashed otherwise, community involvement and positive attention. 

"Don't obey me, my child"

Continuing my catch up on nvc-parenting archives, I paused again at Isabell Peters' poem. I'm trying to work out with what I feel connected, and which parts disconnect with me. (permission to share with others off-list, message 6532):

Don't obey me, my child
(Isabell Peters/2005)

Listen to me and open your heart
when I open mine
when I reveal myself to you

or indoctrinate you - then tell me
if you are irritated.

Should I say "you have to"
don't believe me, my child -
Just bear with me
when I know no other way.

When I think I know better
What's good for you
don't believe me -
just bear with me
when I seem to have no trust.

Listen to me and open your heart
when I open mine
even when I reveal myself
with lack of trust
with my pain
with my disorientation.

Never obey me, my child!

Yet follow me if your heart approves.

(Translation: Sara Hartmann)


Connection: "Yet follow me if your heart approves" - describes the desire I hold that my children might follow my instructions because those instructions are such that would meet my children's needs.

Disconnection: Actually, probably not disconnection, so much as my fear that the number of times my instructions may have been made with my own needs rather than the children's in mind may have created an inclination in them for lack of trust that my instruction would be worth following with approval.

Obedience, compliance... surely they are not needed if I have earned trust?

"For words, like Nature, half reveal...

and half conceal the Soul within." - Alfred Lord Tennyson, In Memoriam