When the Muse Strikes....

Seattle

noreply@blogger.com (Columbia) — Wed, 06 Aug 2008 00:46:00 +0000

So, I started thinking about vacations, and realized that it has been over 10 years since my daughter and I have been out of this state. Don't get me wrong, Minnesota is a lovely place to live, but I really love traveling, and have not had any chance, with all the changes I have gone through the last decade.

So now that things have finally settled down, and there is steady income again, I decided a vacation was in order. I have been to most corners of the US- from the East Coast, to the South, to the West (not the Southwest- doesn't hold much appeal for me), but I have never been to the Pacific Northwest. Lately I have been feeling a need for a big change, and I have been dreaming of moving to another part of the country. My whole life I have lived in the Midwest (Wisconsin and Minnesota) and there is so much more to see and experience out there. So one night, I hopped on Expedia and impulsively booked a vacation to Seattle. Had no ideas about areas of the city, but that is why the internets is so great. I spent the next couple of weeks researching so that by the time we left, we had a whole list of things we wanted to see and do. Trouble was, we only had 4 days there. Not nearly enough time.

Here is the hotel where we stayed. The Red Lion Hotel on 5th Avenue. It was wonderful- right in the heart of downtown. We opted not to rent a car (parking is ridiculously expensive there- $30 a night at the hotel) and just hoofed it all around the city. The public transportation there is fabulous. Free in the downtown area.

Minneapolis is somewhat smaller than Seattle in population, but there is a hugh difference in the pace and bustle of the city. The streets and sidewalks were crowded from sunup to long after dark. We were amazed by how much foot traffic there was on the sidewalks. Everyone drives here, and after 5, when the office workers go home, downtown pretty much turns into a ghost town. Not so in Seattle. And the weather made it very amenable to walking both during the day and at night.

All in all, a great place to visit (and I bet, a good place to live). More posts and pics on the Seattle trip to come.

Long, long, time ago

noreply@blogger.com (Columbia) — Wed, 06 Aug 2008 00:33:00 +0000

It has been a very long time indeed since I have updated this blog. Since my last post, I have been trying to get back into some normalcy without classes two nights a week and weekends spent writing papers. It has been 6 long years since I have not had a class!

I thought that when I finished my bachelor's and my master's I would have all kinds of time to get things done. What has happened in 8 months- where has the time gone, and what exactly have I accomplished? Well, let's see...

I started working on my house, room by room. We moved in almost 10 years ago now, and have done relatively little with the place. A fresh coat of paint in some of the rooms, new fixtures in the bathroom. And then the great remodel just stalled out. I found I didn't have the extra income to put into the house- there was school to pay for (mine and my daughter's) and lots of major home repair- repair, mind you, not renovation. That is what happens when you buy a house that is 60 years old!

I had lots of great plans for this place- a new bathroom in the basement, new carpet, refinished hardwood floors. Instead, I ended up with a new furnace, water heater, central air, and main sewer line. For what it cost to get all those repairs done, I easily could have had my downstairs bathroom.

But, now school is done, and I have been spending some time (and considerable bucks) on finally starting the things I wanted to do for the last 10 years. I bought all new appliances- lovely stainless steel- for the kitchen, and a new washer and dryer. A couple of weeks ago we got a new area rug for the dining room. We pulled up all the old perennials in the flower gardens and planted fresh ones.

There is still plenty to do. A driveway sealcoat is next on the agenda. Maybe soon our tired old homestead will look young and fresh again.

Ahhh.....Graduation!

noreply@blogger.com (Columbia) — Thu, 20 Dec 2007 19:45:00 +0000

Just a quick self-congratulatory posting. I finally finished my Master's degree in Technical Comunication last week. What a great feeling. Although it really didn't take me that long (5 semesters), I was quite ready for it to be done. Like the glutton for punishment that I am, I'm already looking into the next phase of my education! I am pretty interested in taking the Web 2.0 Technologies certificate course offered at St. Paul College. I have approached my employer about tuition reimbursement, and have gotten a tentative favorable response. I think it may be a go! After that, I am considering getting some kind of technical degree- maybe in graphic or web design, to help balance out some of my theoretical knowledge.

Making Your Blog Work For You

noreply@blogger.com (Columbia) — Mon, 10 Dec 2007 19:20:00 +0000

I just read a good article on the Microsoft Small Business Center website about using your blog to generate some income. There are 5 basic ways to do it, and the author spells them out here. Here is a quick rundown:

Sell advertising space on your blog
Help sell others' products
Solicit contributions from readers
Market your own services in your blog
Build an existing customer base

I think I would be comfortable doing of these except for the solicitation. I have seen many blogs in which the authors do that, and to me it is merely begging for money. I can go many places for information- blogs are just one medium out of many. If the person blogging chooses to share information/opinions with the blogosphere, that is their choice. I don't feel particularly obligated to pay for that.

WAYN

noreply@blogger.com (Columbia) — Mon, 10 Dec 2007 17:21:00 +0000

A friend of mine recently sent me an e-vite to joing WAYN (Where Are You Now), a Web 2.0 site which tracks the countries you have been to on trips. Like many other social sites, WAYN allows users to upload profiles and photos. Users can then search for friends who may be on the site, as well as send and receive messages using email, discussion forums, eCards, and WAYN IMing.
One feature I enjoy is the virtual map which allows me to see where each of my contacts is located around the world. It is a great way to keep track of friends while they are traveling. There is also a blog feature that I have yet to explore- I think I need to limit the number of sites where I am blogging, or I would feel compelled to update on several sites!

A little cautionary note, however. The site has taken some criticism for the option of adding friends via your email address book. WAYN then sends out automatic inviations which many view as spam. I have not been able to figure out how to turn this feature off, and all my contacts did in fact receive an e-vite. I am not sure how many of my friends were annoyed by this or not.

Writing Digitally vs Digital Writing

noreply@blogger.com (Columbia) — Thu, 29 Nov 2007 19:12:00 +0000

I have been reading a fair amount lately about "digital writing," and what it is supposed to be. From what I understand, it is supposed to be writing for a digital medium- not just using technology to create writing. Digital writing must take into account all the facets of technology- audience, medium on which it will be viewed/read, download speed, etc.

Here is an article which professes to be about digital writing. The author proposes that "good writing is a lost art, but doesn't have to be if you use the tools that come with your processing software." I take a lot of exception with this article. The author is implying that simply using the tools that come with Word (or whatever you use)- spell checker, grammar checker, the thesaurus- will make a person a better writer. Although it is, of course, important to pay attention to mechanics when you are writing, it is impossible for these tool to make you a better writer. To me, that phrase is all about the content, the meaning, the skilled turn of a phrase. No matter how important the author thinks these tools are, they will never be able to help an author hone natural or learned writing talent.

Web 2.0 Certificate

noreply@blogger.com (Columbia) — Fri, 16 Nov 2007 14:55:00 +0000

In my mailbox today I found a course catalog from St. Paul College. Typically I don't spend much time looking at catalogs from tech schools, but this one caught my eye. They are offering a new certificate (16 credits) called "Web 2.0 Development Technologies." Even though I have just spent the last 5 years in school, I just may have to extend that time a bit and go for this certificate. It only consists of 4 courses- Web 2.0 Architecture, Web 2.0 Multimedia Tools, Open Source Software Foundations, and Web 2.0 Programming and Software Tools.

If anyone is interested, click on the graphic below to go to St. Paul College's page describing the certificate and any prerequisites. Based on the cover picture, this could be a pretty fun program. Apparently students get to spend a fair amount of time in Second Life.

Digital Writing

noreply@blogger.com (Columbia) — Thu, 15 Nov 2007 16:53:00 +0000

I was recently doing some digging on the Internet on the subject of digital writing. I started thinking about this subject after doing some research for a project on effective blogging techniques. During my search, I found some interesting articles on instructors' reluctance to teach digital writing, which led me to kairos.rhetoric.net. I had discovered this site while taking a Rhetorical Theory class. The purpose of kairos is to "push boundaries in academic publishing at the same time (striving) to bridge the gap between print and digital publishing cultures."

They have an interesting article posted about why it is important for writing instructors to teaching digital writing (not writing using a computer, but writing which will be published on a digital medium) along with traditional print writing. There is a great section in which the authors have posted some typical reasons instructors give in resistance to teaching digital writing, and their responses to those reasons.

Second Life and Dwight Schrute

noreply@blogger.com (Columbia) — Mon, 05 Nov 2007 15:15:00 +0000

I am a huge fan of "The Office" and had to laugh when I was watching the show a couple of weeks ago. We have been talking about social web sites in class, and coincidentally, on an episode of The Office called "Local Ad", Dwight was playing Second Life all day at work. The character he had created looked exactly like him, lived in a house identical to his in real life, and was a paper salesman. The only difference in Dwight's Second Life character was that he could fly.

Pretty hysterical concept that someone would spend hours in cyberspace creating a character that was exactly like himself.

Social Internet Sites

noreply@blogger.com (Columbia) — Sun, 04 Nov 2007 23:28:00 +0000

I must admit, before taking the Electronic Publishing class I am currently enrolled in, I hadn't really given a lot of thought to social sites. In fact, I really had no idea how many social or Web 2.0 sites existed out in cyberspace. If someone had asked me to name some, I probably would only have come up with Wikipedia, MySpace, and YouTube. Since doing some digging, however, I realize just how many have appeared and in how little of time it took for the phenomenon to happen.

I couldn't really see the motivation for me to join in, however. I have not been one to share my photos, so didn't use sites like Flicker or Photobucket. I thought blogs were mainly places for angst-ridden teenagers to gripe about their parents and their friends. And I thought YouTube was just full of mindless drivel- people behaving badly. You don't have to search very much at all in YouTube to find examples like this- what I would call complete time wasters:

Since doing some research, however, I have come to realize that many of these social sites can be very useful and informative. As I mentioned in an earlier post, during my research I discovered a great site that has put together a directory of Web 2.0 sites. I literally spent hours clicking on each link, and bookmarked several that I would like to take a closer look at.

Another interesting thing I found during my research is that some people actually make money by uploading content to various sites. I found this site which lists ways users can make money from social sites. Coincidentally enough, when I logged into Blogger to post this, I noticed that they had this announcement on the dashboard page:

AdSense recently introduced a feature called video units, that lets you include relevant YouTube video on your blog, and make money from ads on it. Here’s what they have to say about it:
"We're excited about the launch of video units -- a new way to enrich your blog with quality, relevant video content in an embedded, customizable player. Simply embed a snippet of code and have relevant YouTube partner content streamed to your blog. You can choose categories of video to target to your site, select content from individual YouTube partners, or have video automatically targeted to your blog's content. Companion and text overlay ads are relevant and non-intrusive. To further blend the YouTube player into your blog, you can also customize the color scheme and layout as well as choose from three different player sizes."AdSense Help has some more information about video units. Once you’ve created the code for a video unit, you can easily add it to your blog’s template using an HTML/JavaScript page element.

So, the upshot of all this musing is that I need to rethink my assessment of social web sites. Many of them do have value, and provide ways for families and friends to keep in touch. In fact, my daughter and I jumped in with both feet the past few weeks. We both created blogs that allow us to update each other on our goings-on while she is in Japan, and she will regularly be sharing her pics on Photobucket. These sites will allow her to instantaneously keep her family up-to-date on her adventure, and also allow us communicate often and for free- something which would have not been possible 10 or 15 years ago.

Japan and the Search for an Open Wireless Network

noreply@blogger.com (Columbia) — Sun, 04 Nov 2007 23:21:00 +0000

Well, my daughter left for Japan 4 days ago, and has yet to find an open wireless internet connection. The place where she is staying advertised free WiFi connections, but for some reason she is having trouble connecting. So for all our careful planning and plotting-- downloading and testing Skype, creating blogs in which we update each other-- we are reduced to communicating the old-fashioned way: by telephone. I supplied her with an international calling card before she left, hoping it would only have to be used in emergencies. Her cell phone is too old to accept the sim card that makes it work overseas, so we have to rely on land lines.
The upshot of all this technology disappointment is that I have only been able to talk to her for a couple of minutes, and unless she can get hooked to the internet, the fun blog she created for her Japan postings will go unused. All this tech stuff can be great, but equally as frustrating at times.

Technology and Family Dynamics

noreply@blogger.com (Columbia) — Tue, 30 Oct 2007 14:36:00 +0000

So, we had an interesting situation at my house this weekend. We had a main line water back up into the house- wet basement, ruined carpeting and furniture, the whole nine yards. The Roto Rooter guy attempted to open the drain for 5 hours Friday night (which cost the equivalent of a mortgage payment) and was unable to unblock it. They were unable to send out someone with a camera until Monday, so we had to go the entire weekend without water- very difficult to do. The camera guy took a look inside the pipe and ascertained that we needed to have the junction between the city's line and our line replaced- requiring them to dig up the street and lay new pipe- very costly indeed. We were then told we would have to go another day without water. At this point, we had had enough. We checked into a hotel- splurged on a suite- and spent Monday in water-filled splendor. Our room had free WiFi, so I was able to log into my work network and get some stuff done, while Sarah spent the afternoon chatting with friends both here and in Japan. I also had a chance to update this blog, and fix the coding that messed up my widgets when using Firefox.
But what was interesting to me was the communication dynamics between my daughter and myself during that time. We set up our laptops with our backs to each other and even though we were in the same room together all day, did very little real speaking. We spent more time talking to others- me emailing and IMing work, and her on Skype with international friends. This is kind of becoming the norm for us. In fact, one day we were testing Skype in anticipation of having to use it when she goes on her 2-month Japan extended stay, and we were talking over Skype to each other while in the same room, sitting not more than 10 feet from each other.
When I think of how much technology has created changes in the way people communicate with each other, it is amazing. But, are we losing something in the process? 15 years ago, we would not have had laptops and wireless connections, and would have spent the day hanging out together, talking and enjoying each other's company. All of our gadgets just affords us a way to be "always on" and not be in the moment with the person we are with.
I remember, as a child, sitting on my grandparent's back porch on a warm summer evening, just watching the sun set and chatting lazily. Now, I would probably view doing that as "wasting time" that could be better spent on the internet getting some work done. That is a sad commentary indeed.

Cyberbullying

noreply@blogger.com (Columbia) — Mon, 29 Oct 2007 16:35:00 +0000

Our reflection topic for class last week was cyberbullying. We didn't get to discuss much about it, but I find it a fascinating topic. My daughter has a LiveJournal account, and has had nothing in the way of cyberbullying on that blog. She avoids it by restricting it to "friends only" comments, but has seen friends' blogs on which random users have left hate comments and offensive pictures.
One of my daughter's hobbies is collecting Asian Ball-Jointed Dolls (ABJDs- often also called Super-Dollifes). These dolls have become very popular in this country, especially with those who are interested in anime/manga, Japanese music and fashion, Japanese culture, and also with doll enthusiasts. Unfortunately, as with anything that draws a lot of attention, the world of Super Dollfie collecting has its detractors and critics. One of those critics went so far as to create a Wikipedia article which slammed the dolls and particularly those who collect them. The author of the entry made personal attacks on the collectors, going to far as to refer to people who participate on the ABJD Forum, The Den of Angels. He actually named names and posted pictures, calling the collectors "losers and deviants". The entry flew under the radar of the editors for a long time, but has since been removed.
This was an example that usually does not come to mind when thinking about types of cyberbullying. Even though the hateful words and comments did not happen on a blog or forum, it is bullying nonetheless. It is amazing to me the time that people will take in the attempt to make people feel bad about things they enjoy doing. It must have taken the person who created the Wikipedia article several hours to write- it was not a random comment that could be fired off in a couple of minutes. It is very unfortunate that such an undesirable facet of our society has to find its way onto the internet. But, of course, the internet really is a reflection of ourselves, flaws and all.

City Wide WiFi

noreply@blogger.com (Columbia) — Wed, 17 Oct 2007 23:42:00 +0000

My mother is looking forward with great anticipation to the WiFi projected being completed in Minneapolis. She is in the section of Northeast which will be completed last- according to the city's website, sometime during the last weeks of December. I think it is a great thing to provide wireless to a community- the going rate will be much lower than that of Comcast's or Qwest's, thus creating some competion in that area.

I read an article on msn.com's tech section talking about how Minneapolis' wireless network was first intended to be used for public safety and to connect city agencies. However, after the 35W bridge collapsed, the city learned how the network can be utilized during an emergency. They opened up the network to all users, allowing those with dual mode WiFi phones to connect with people without adding to the already strained cellular networks. In the days and weeks that followed, the Wi-Fi network was also instrumental in rescue and recovery efforts around the disaster site.

Many cities are reluctant to spend the money on creating a wireless network for their residents, but after a disaster such as the one last August perhaps they will reconsider, recognize the value, and make wireless internet available for all.

One More Thing....

noreply@blogger.com (Columbia) — Wed, 17 Oct 2007 23:33:00 +0000

While I was writing this post, an error popped up letting me know that Blogger's site was unavailable. I did that little internal scream "Nooooooo!" that everyone does when they have been working on something and technology goes ka-flooey and you lose everything. Luckily, Blogger has a great feature- it autosaves a draft of your blog every minute, in case of power outages, server problems, etc.

Two thumbs up, Blogger!!

Coincidentally

noreply@blogger.com (Columbia) — Wed, 17 Oct 2007 22:47:00 +0000

After having just done the research on Web 2.0 for my wiki page for class, I found myself in an interesting conversation an acquaintance about what she thinks it is. I read specifically that the term does not refer to any specific change in technology on the Web, but rather a change in the way that people use it- specifically, the interaction and collaboration of Web 2.0 sites. She spent about 15 minutes "correcting" me- according to her, Web 2.0 is all about the coding that triggers the informational windows that popup when users mouse over certain parts of the screen. For a demo, take a look at Ask.com and search for anything. The results are listed similarly to Google's but there is a little binoculars icon you can mouse over next to each search result that lets you see a thumbnail of what the site looks like. You can quickly eliminate sites you know don't have what you are looking for with this feature.

This is a wonderful feature, but is not what Web 2.0 is all about. There is so much more to it, as I myself am still realizing realizing.

Finding Web 2.0 Sites

noreply@blogger.com (Columbia) — Sun, 14 Oct 2007 19:54:00 +0000

I just stumbled across this great site that calls itself "The Complete Web 2.0 Directory." I don't know if they have all the Web 2.0 sites, but they sure do have some interesting ones. TuneSquare looks like a really good one for musicians trying to get their music heard. TuneSquare is an online music community where unsigned bands and artists can make some money while listeners from around the world can download their songs for free.

Trivago is another great site, where users can find useful information to help them plan a European vacation. There are reviews from people who have already visited a destination or stayed in the hotel, holiday home, etc., that users are interested in.

One that looks really fun to me is Retroland, where users can talk about and create a virtual scrapbook of things from their childhood. Think platform shoes, Shrinky Dinks, air hockey, and Slinky.

Top 50 Wikis

noreply@blogger.com (Columbia) — Sun, 07 Oct 2007 21:44:00 +0000

Heres a link to AdVolcano's ranking of the top 50 wikis:
http://www.advolcano.com/blog/?p=11

Technical Communication Blogs/Wikis

noreply@blogger.com (Columbia) — Sun, 07 Oct 2007 21:13:00 +0000

I received my copy of Intercom the other day (the magazine of the Society of Technical Communication) and was pleasantly surprised to see the topic for this month's issue is "Web 2.0". All the article's subjects have to do in some way with features of many of the things we have been discussing in class- Flickr, de.licio.us, wikis, cloud tagging, RSS feeds- and what the role of a technical communicator will be in a Web 2.0 world.

I have added links to some of the blogs and wikis discussed in the magazine. One of the most interesting articles was about structured wikis which combine the elements of a database with wiki-authoring environments. One of the most popular is TWiki. Users of TWiki can catagorize content by subject, area, author, date created, etc. Several large corporations, including Morotola, Disney, SAP, and Yahoo use TWiki as internal information systems.

Surgery=Not a Good Time

noreply@blogger.com (Columbia) — Sun, 07 Oct 2007 00:55:00 +0000

So, I am a bit behind on my blogging. I went in for sinus surgery one week ago, and am still somewhat in recuperation mode. I can breathe a bit better now, but still have a residual nagging headache and sore throat. Makes me wonder why some people would voluntarily put themselves through rhinoplasty just to look better!

Technology Blog

noreply@blogger.com (Columbia) — Sat, 29 Sep 2007 03:59:00 +0000

My daughter showed me a blog about Japan's cutting edge technology: pinktentacle.com. Most of the entries have to do with technology, but there are also entries about biological advances, art, and architecture. Very cool stuff.

Lorem Ipsum and Word 2007

noreply@blogger.com (Columbia) — Mon, 24 Sep 2007 19:15:00 +0000

Here is a great tip I just read on a writing blog. If you are using Word 2007, and need to insert dummy text into your document, you no longer need to copy and paste a block of lorem ipsum. Just type "=lorem()" into the body of the document, press enter, and voila, a couple paragraphs of lorem! To indicate how many sentences and paragraphs needed, just use the following syntax: =lorem(paragraphs, sentences). So, for example, =lorem(6,20) would get you six paragraphs of 20 sentences each.

Say what you will about Bill Gates, he does stay on top of pressing issues like this one!

For Your Health!

noreply@blogger.com (Columbia) — Sun, 23 Sep 2007 01:25:00 +0000

This has nothing whatsoever to do with the topic of writing, but John C. Reilly is fantastic!

Writing from Days Past

noreply@blogger.com (Columbia) — Sun, 23 Sep 2007 00:46:00 +0000

The following is an excerpt from a short multigenre piece I wrote in 2004 titled, "The Promise of Gold":

Well… I says to Da and Mam.
What is the ‘well’? Da says to me. He is smiling.
The ‘well’ is…I have a great mind to go to America.
The smile leaves my father’s face.
Aunt Peg has sent me a letter with an American Ticket, and she says I can get work there for two dollars a week, I say. Two dollars! Just think, Da, I can save and send for Colm in just a few years, you and Mam as well.
I want to go to ‘Merica, too, Da! says Colm.
I see the look on Da’s face, like a thundercloud.
You know there is nothing in Ireland for me, Da, I say. ‘Tis best I go.
Well, fly away at once, says Da. Away with you over the sea and ‘tis sure you will find the gold on the streets.
Da turns away.

Time for a Theme

noreply@blogger.com (Columbia) — Sun, 23 Sep 2007 00:32:00 +0000

So I have decided that I am going to focus the topic of this blog on writing- writing I enjoy, writing I have done, writing I find intriguing.

Right now I am reading an excellent book called "The Secrets of Mariko" by Elisabeth Bumiller. Bumiller spent 14 months interviewing a "typical Japanese housewife." During that time she learned intimate details about Japanese families to which Westerners are rarely exposed. Even though the book is now 16 years old and many of the family dynamics in Japan have since evolved to mimic Western ways, it is a still fascinating read.