Techy-Feely

RIP - Michael Jackson

I am so saddened to lose on of my truly major icons yesterday. I am not sure icon is the right word but hero is not right either. I didn’t want to be Michael Jackson but I did want to marry him at one point. When I was about 12. Then, after reading the biography of the Jackson 5 that I got in the Scholastic Book Club, I did the math on his birthdate and realized that he, being well over 3 years older than me, was WAY too old for me to marry and it would never work out. I recall being a big heartbroken over that fact at the time.

But, I stayed a fan through Jackson 5 and then well into his heyday of the 80s/90s. Thinking over definitive moments, it had to be this one. I still remember watching the Motown Special on live television with my siblings. When he broke out the moonwalk for the first time…on my.

First, we screamed: O no, he didn’t (or something like that)
Second, we all got up and started trying to do it ourselves. Badly.  Really, really badly!

His dancing has always intrigued me. He floats in space rather than just dance on a stage. Magical. There are so many strong performances and videos, but I think the dancing in Smooth Criminal has always stuck with me.

As his legal battles went on and his musicality waned, I remained a fan but did wonder what the extremely hard life of being in show business since the age of 3 had done to his mind and body.

Rest in Peace Michael. You are the King of Pop and that will never change.

Wordle - Beautiful way to share tags

A colleague reminded me of Wordle. I truly find it beautiful. Both in the elegance that the Java app works (cannot say that about all java apps!) and in the actual creation of the tool. So, without further ado, here is my Wordle based on current tags in my delicious account!

A Magic Number - Schoolhouse Rock

I was at an ed tech conference this past week. At lunch, they had “edutainment” speakers, which is a great idea since everybody is usually eating and so on so a “serious” speaker is often not the best idea.

Schoolhouse Rock - Three is a Magic Number

Facebook Usernames? Which to choose?

Great! I see that Facebook is now going to dole out usernames. Well, actually, you get to pick one out on a “first come, first served” basis. That might make it easier to find folks on Facebook, I see.

My quandry is which username to use? I like my techyfeely moniker and that is personal. I also have been using ajwms for a long time now and it has become my professional username as well as some personal.

What does a girl do about this one? Is it best to have only one username and stick with it or is it good to have personal and professional usernames?

Hmmmmm…..

Creative Commons For the Win!!!

One of my CC licensed photos in Flickr was used in local blog posting. Feels mighty good to see all that good old social media mojo working.

Knoxify - The insider’s take on what makes Knoxville great

Famous Photos “ruined” by technology

From Gizmodo, check out this gallery of Photoshop brilliance mixing famous news photography with current technology.

Gizmodo - 86 Iconic Images Ruined With Technology - Photoshop

Meditating on a Powertool

I got to spend about two hours last night helping friends open their pool. Most of my time was spent with a power washer. As I moved slowly through cleaning chairs, tables, poolsides, diving board and more, it turned into a nice meditation.

I truly enjoyed being in the moment and it was easy to stay there because of the constant feedback of something actually happening! You can tell where you have been with the washer. You can see the dirt, leaves, moss and other debris instantly “disappear” as the water goes by. You can also tell where you missed so you can go back and take care of the situation. It was refreshing to have a project with a distinct positive direction and a pretty clear sense of ending. (I means you will always see things you missed or the surfaces may never be clean enough)

I started thinking about the various projects I have going at home, at work, on the computer, in the garage, and in my mind. So many unfinished states! I think I need to fine tune my GTD strategy some more. I do like my big picture and my project lists. Goodness knows, I have plenty of them!!  But, I think I need to make some of my projects “smaller” or at least figure out some next actions that will allow me to see something done or at least in the process of being done. I think that will do my psyche some good. Glad I got that worked out while standing by a pool on a glorious May evening with good friends all sharing in some common labor and some really good fun!

Powerwashing for my soul as it were.

Image: ‘Powerwashing‘
www.flickr.com/photos/46764844@N00/2765876797

Do you hug your technology?

Driving home yesterday, I heard a story on NPR about the last mission to the Hubble Space Telescope. This mission is the last repair mission (and the first one in seven year, it seems) and the story told a bit about the repairs and how it will help the mighty instrument be even more “mightier”.

But what struck me the most was the part of the story about the astronauts also taking the feelings of the engineers and scientists with them on this last visit. The science team with Hubble have been working on it for decades. This last mission has to be a hard one to take - even though it was once cancelled completely.

The part of the story that stayed with me:

He notes that every astronaut who goes to Hubble leaves a mark on the observatory. “Even just putting your hand on the telescope affects the surface coating juts a little bit,” he says, “and so you can see handprints and things like that, and so it’s clear that people have been working on this telescope.”

Another astronaut who will do spacewalks and repair work on this mission, Mike Massimino, says he recently saw a good friend who has worked on the Hubble project for a long time. “He said, ‘Make sure, your last time on that telescope, you give it a pat for me,’ ” Massimino says.

So, he will give Hubble a special goodbye pat on behalf of all the people who have worked with it. “I hope that that’s going to be in my mind as I’m letting go of the telescope for the last time, my one last handshake with it,” Massimino says.

I do like having a connection with the techonlogy I use. The admins snickered at me but when I was finally allowed into the server room at school so I could see the electronic “box” where all of my online courses lived, it felt good to see it physically. Made it more real, I guess.

I recalled how I feel when I get or let go of a piece of technology. Especially something that I have used and loved for a long time (harder to do now, it seems, with the disposable nature of much of our tech)… Don’t have it yet with cell phones but I certainly loved my Mac SE (and my PowerMac 6100 and my PowerComputing clone and..well, you get the idea - don’t even get me started on my iMac!). I love my record player and my records. I have been digitizing cassettes for a year now and it is still so hard to put those cassettes into the trash or recycling bin..even though I have the music from them safely esconsced in electrons on two hard drives. Americans LOVE their cars..that qualifies. Chefs love their knives. I’m sure the list goes on.

What tech makes you feel?

Image: ‘I Love Tech Tshirt‘
www.flickr.com/photos/25528051@N06/3361211971

From ICHC

see more Lolcats and funny pictures

Testing again

Want to know if ViddYou is the way to go for this kinda thing…not sure yet.