The Fifth was Flickr

When your first view of a campus is something like this, is it any wonder at all that you would choose to attend that college? I spent many nights in the garden at Blithewood and have so many memories of the place and its rocks that lit up when they were cracked together... And I think "Halcyon Heather" had the right idea when she let us read Arcadia aloud in the garden, back in August 2001, when everything really was idyllic, before the world fell apart.

"hudson ethereal" by iluvrhinestones

Bard College, Annandale-on-Hudson NY

questions about 2.0

Is Pamunkey trying to be part of the "Web 2.0" movement? Or are they trying to highlight aspects of it? Because if they're trying to do the latter, why are we spending time with certain sites? I feel like if a site were really worth our exploring, we could find it here. Am I wrong? Am I just naïve? At least 20% of what we're being encouraged to do is not yet listed in the directory, though the sites/communities/programs have been around for ages. I have to wonder why.

What? Ewe Tube?

Of course, since I'm a kid, I've been visiting YouTube for several years now. I've even got a YouTube profile, even though I've never uploaded anything, and the user who impresses me the most is Argentinian computer artist Nico Di Mattia, whose "speed paintings" of Scarlett Johansson and others are absolutely incredible.

I use YouTube fairly regularly. My new favorite band, The Wiyos, just put out their third album with my favorite song on it--and before the CD came out (and before the lead singer/washboardist kindly gave me a copy), the only way I could hear my favorite song (without being at a show) was by playing a video of one of their performances on YouTube. And here it is, The Wiyos performing "Dyin' Crapshooter's Blues" originally recorded by Blind Willie McTell:

As for other video hosting sites, I really like Ebaum's World, which is unfortunately blocked by the library's content filters. In the past, Ebaum's World has hosted videos from my college's sketch comedy troupe, Olde English. Ebaum's World was also the place where I first found the video of "Pinky, the Pet of the Day." (And evidently, whoever posted this version of it to YouTube also found it on Ebaum's World...)

Even though I know some about YouTube and have a profile myself, I decided to explore one of the library's recommended videos (by "recommended," I mean one of the ones linked in the "20 Things" blog), so I chose the time-lapse drive down the Richmond-Henrico Turnpike. It started playing and something about it reminded me of a guy I know who works with my friend Joel at the VCU/MCV Tompkins-McCaw Library. His name is Andrew, and he's got a cute little Mazda RX-8, which one day had a camcorder taped to its roof. Turns out, he had decided to record trips that he made around town, and was starting to post them on the Internet. Well! I looked to see who had posted the video, and it was none other than Andrew himself! Isn't that funny! What are the odds?!


Anyway, I kind of like YouTube because it offers videos of things that I haven't seen in years--Joel, for instance, just told me about finding clips from "Noozles" on YouTube--or it lets me introduce my friends to new things. In fact, I used YouTube to introduce my coworker Josh to "The Vicar of Dibley," which he found hysterically funny, even though he doesn't typically like British humor. (And I've used it to promote The Wiyos on my Facebook page, and I've shown The Wiyos' videos to my friends to entice them to come to shows with me.)

One of the weaknesses of YouTube, I think, is its search system. If someone hasn't tagged their video very well, or if you don't know the exact search terms, it could take a very long time to track down the video you want. For instance, if I were looking for clips from "Noozles" but I couldn't remember the title of the show or any of the characters' names (which I didn't until Joel reminded me of them), I would probably search for something like "koalas" and "animation" or maybe "koalas" and "tv show," and videos for "Noozles" would never appear. (One "Noozles" video appears in a search for "koalas" and "cartoon.")

I'm not sure I understand the question about features of the site being applied to library web sites. Are we talking about videos? Are we talking about video hosting? Are we talking about the channels and categories? Are we talking about the "community" aspect of YouTube? It would be cool if Pamunkey started some sort of community where patrons and staff could go to share book reviews and things like that--but that's not an idea inspired by YouTube...


And finally, just because I love this dude, I want to share one last favorite video:

Sweet, huh? In case you don't know anything about anything, that's the "Inspector Gadget" theme song. And yeah, that's right, he's beatboxing into his flute.

Reflections on 7 1/2 Habits

For me, the easiest "habit of lifelong learning" is, by far, playing. When I was in high school and taking American Sign Language as my 2-year language, we would often play a head-to-head team game to practice our vocabulary. We would break into two teams and line up in front of our teacher, who stood at the front of the room. She would sign the word or concept to the two people immediately in front of her, and whichever team's player said the answer first got a point. I loved the game.

To indicate that you want to play a game, you sign PLAY + GAME. "Play" is signed by shaking both hands in the "Y" shape at about chest level. "Game" is signed by making thumbs-up signs with both hands and knocking your fists together at the knuckles.

We had a very informal class--and we were only allowed to sign--so whenever our teacher paused from her lesson and looked as though she was trying to think of what to do at that moment, I would wave my hand for her attention and signed PLAY + GAME. Seriously, I did it all the time. In fact, that was how I finally got my "name sign." My name sign is a "D" (for Devon), shaken at chest height--inspired directly by PLAY. Whenever I introduced myself, I'd include the explanation: MY + NAME + "Devon." WHY(t) + ME + LIKE + PLAY + GAME(nod). "Devon" + PLAY. One could say that, as far as learning Sign Language went, "Devon" was synonymous with "play," and so I don't think it's at all surprising that I think the easiest thing of the 7 1/2 habits is remembering to play. I play all the time. For me, things aren't worth doing if they're not fun, and I tend to make fun for myself, even in boring situations.

The second easiest thing for me (I imagine I ought to have a second, since "playing" was really only half a habit...) is #2, accepting responsibility for my own learning. In college, I don't think I ever skipped a class because I just didn't want to go. I missed a couple of classes freshman year when I was sick with H. flu and strep agalactiae, and then I missed one junior year when I had my first case of heartburn (from a medication given to me by the psychos in health services) and literally thought I was dying, and I missed one or two of the classes I was auditing senior year--but I never just skipped for the hell of it. Furthermore, I went back to Bard after the fiasco of my sophomore year!!! I've said it before, and I'll say it again--I hated the students and I hated the administration, but I loved my professors and I loved my classes; I wasn't in school to socialize or to rub elbows with the administratii, I was there to learn, and I couldn't imagine a better place to get an education. I knew what it would take to return, and I'd be damned if I didn't take it into my own hands and do it. I'm very self-reliant as it is (because, after all, you can't really trust anyone but yourself, can you?), and so recognizing that education and learning is my own responsibility just comes naturally to me.

Now, the hardest thing for me among the habits is probably #4, having confidence in myself. With self-reliance comes a great deal of self-doubt. I literally am my own worst critic. When I began high school, I suffered a terrible spell of feelings of inadequacy, and I think I have finally plateaued at an uncomfortable level of sheer adequacy. I no longer feel stupider than others, but I also no longer have the confidence that I once had that I could master anything in enough time. I'm just not a masterer. I'm one of those people who knows a little about a lot, but I know that I'll never be the best at anything. It's kind of discouraging, disheartening. Therefore, it's very difficult for me to have confidence in myself as a competent lifelong learner. Furthermore, I was trying to teach myself Greek a year ago, and I couldn't even figure out how to pronounce "gamma"!!! I asked for the Rosetta Stone language materials for Christmas, but I haven't even opened them yet. (The truth is, I want to make sure that I use them on a computer with enough memory to support the software, and I think my parents have done terrible things to our home desktop, and my laptop is so old that its hard drive is probably going to crash in the next six months, so I don't want to risk installing anything of such gravity as Rosetta Stone on it right now. But still--haven't done it.) The point is, instead of going on to practice the rest of the alphabet, I stopped at gamma because I didn't think I had it in me to learn anything else if I couldn't even get past the third letter of the alphabet.

At any rate, I think I am a lifelong learner. I'm always trying new things out, and even though my memory isn't so great, I love whenever I can pick up a new skill. In considering graduate schools, I've been looking not only at programs that will enhance what I already know but also at programs that will fill in the gaps where there are still things I want to know.

And here's something I guess I'm curious to know... why did Fran refer to the video as "the second thing" and not the third? Also, why do we have to watch these videos, when there's nothing special about the video format that we couldn't have picked up with simple voiceover? I feel awkward trying to watch these "videos."

Muzeum Szymborski

Muzeum

Wisława Szymborska

Są talerze, ale nie ma apetytu.
Są obrączki, ale nie ma wzajemności
od co najmniej trzystu lat.

Jest wachlarz - gdzie rumieńce?
Są miecze - gdzie gniew?
I lutnia ani brzęknie o szarej godzinie.

Z braku wieczności zgromadzono
dziesięć tysięcy starych rzeczy.
Omszały woźny drzemie słodko
zwiesiwszy wąsy nad gablotką.

Metale, glina, piórko ptasie
cichutko tryumfują w czasie.
Chichocze tylko szpilka po śmieszce z Egiptu.

Korona przeczekała głowę.
Przegrała dłoń do rękawicy.
Zwyciężył prawy but nad nogą.

Co do mnie, żyję, proszę wierzyć.
Mój wyścig z suknią nadal trwa.
A jaki ona upór ma!
A jak by ona chciała przeżyć!

There are the plates, but gone is the appetite.
There are the wedding rings, but gone is the love
these three hundred years.

There is the fan - where is the blush behind it?
There are the swords - where is the anger to use them?
And the lute won’t even twang at dusk.

For lack of eternity
ten thousand old things are gathered.
A mossy, old guard dozes sweetly,
his moustache draped over a display case.

Metal, clay, birds’ feathers
quietly triumph in time.
Only an Egyptian girl’s hairpin giggles.

The crown outlasted the head.
The hand lost out to the glove.
The right shoe conquered the foot.

As for me, I still live, you know.
The fight with my dress goes on.
Oh, how stubborn my dress is!

And how it would love to survive me!

trans. Devon E. Mattys

my favorite poem

Dwie Małpy Bruegla

Wisława Szymborska

Tak wygląda mój wielki maturalny sen:
siedzą w oknie dwie małpy przykute łańcuchem,
za oknem fruwa niebo
i kąpie się morze.

Zdaję z historii ludzi.
Jąkam się i brnę.

Małpa, wpatrzona we mnie, ironicznie słucha,
druga niby to drzemie -
a kiedy po pytaniu nastaje milczenie,
podpowiada mi
cichym brząkaniem łańcucha.

the first of, presumably, about 20

First, I feel like I need to make a confession: I hate blogs. I hate blogging, I hate when people call themselves "bloggers," I hate reading blogs, and I even hate the word. It sounds like vomit. But here I am.

I had a livejournal in high school that I kept until my senior year of college. My friends and I used lj to stay in touch, even though we were hundreds (and in one case thousands) of miles apart. And I used it for more personal things, too, and there was some comfort in the relative anonymity of the Internet. We, my friends and I, found ourselves saying things to one another that we wouldn't have dared confess in person. And while it drew us inevitably closer during those early years of separation, it made our later reunions all the more awkward. In the silence of those gatherings, unspoken conversations: Did I really say that to you? It didn't mean anything. No, I never felt that way. I can't believe you still remember when I told you that. Wow, I was a bit dramatic back then, wasn't I? No, of course I thought I meant it. Please, that was two years ago. Are you sure I said that? I was drunk. So many apologies should have been made, but too many things were left unsaid because the sins had been committed online where they were real but unreal at the same time. Can there be absolution for things you don't have proof happened? If I'm not looking you in the face when I tell you something, have I really told you it? The early days of blogging killed some of my relationships. I guess blogging is a symptom of technological progress, progress is a battle against the past, and every war will boast its casualties.

But, as I said, here I am. Not yet sure what I'm doing this for, but here I am. Superficially, of course, this is to fulfill the Pamunkey Library's "Web 2.0: 20 Things" program participation requirements. And now I guess I can check off Numbers One and Two on the list. Congratulations to me.

(Chej, łat gód yz sakryfajsyn jur prynsypls yf jó dont rełord jyrself?)