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.
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!
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.
The speakers were the producers and original composers of Schoolhouse Rock. When they took the stage, I was happy. When, they started singing some of the old tunes, well, I suddenly was shot back to Saturday morning sitting in my pajamas, eating Capt’n Crunch and watching some Sid and Marty Krofft show (probably Land of the Lost) as well as learning about multiplication tables, the parts of speech and how the government works.
I mean, I can totally still recite the Preamble to the United State Constitution but only if I can sing it to the Schoolhouse Rock tune!
I then returned to school and started sharing my excitement with other colleagues. They didn’t know the show!! Never heard of Schoolhouse Rock. That struck me as pretty odd but I guess there is just a small segment of the population who was at the “right” age for this to become as ingrained as it is for my and my siblings.
Oh well, I totally loved it. Enjoy the original song from that series.
Schoolhouse Rock – Three is a Magic Number
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…..
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
