Techy-Feely

Blog Action Day: How we connect and unite in action against Climate Change

Today is BAD ‘09! Blog Action Day. If you are on Twitter, the hashtag is #BAD09

This is the third year that T-F has participated and I am happy to do so, as always. This year’s topic is Climate Change and it is something that has been on my mind a good deal in the past few years. I have some close friends who have made very radical changes in their lifestyle over the past two years as they work to become as sustainable as possible in the expectation of the changes they expect in the world after Peak Oil. I admire them, yes. I emulate some of their choices, yes. Can I do everything they are doing like sell their house, farm most of their own food, make their own bath soaps, etc? Well, I probably could given enough time and training but will I? Probably not.

And climate change is a direct result of our lifestyle choices, it does seem so this is something that I do struggle with. Especially given my current employment. It is directly driven by computer technology and directly draws on natural resources for energy and, given my current location and energy source, directly impacting climate change. So, I try to find ways to help reduce my carbon footprint as much as possible in other aspects of my life since my career feeds into it. This is where the carbon calculators like the ones you find at Earth Lab, the Nature Conservancy Carbon Footprint Calculator (see my results below) and the United State Environmental Protection Agency Household Emissions Calculator

I feel like we do a pretty good job as a household of being as low impact as possible while keeping a fairly modern, technologicaly lifestyle. But, I know I could do more, especially with hot water and lighting.

As much as I learn from my more activist friends, I also learn from the social network I have created within Twitter and other sites where I engage. Participating in Earth Hour last March was inspiring as is writing this post today. I really did like watching the earth go dark for an hour in a wave around the globe. It was fascinating to be a part of it as well as just absorb it. If we can pour the energy that folks had just sharing what they were doing during that hour via photos, tweets and video.

cc licensed flickr photo shared by AJ Wms

The increased use of technology to promote action, while also using energy and producing carbon dioxide, does allow us to feel much more aware and connected with others who feel the same way and to empower us to feel that our actions are not being done in a vacuum. I feel like that is very important as the issue of climate change is certainly not going to be solved by one country or one organization but by all of us and one way we can feel involved is to take part in these global actions, which is made so much more easy by today’s technologies. Can anybody say conundrum?

Want more global community actions to connect and be involved? Try these or share something else in the comments:

International Day of Climate Action (October 24)

Join TckTckTck: Global Citizens for Climate Action alliance of faith groups, organizations, trade unions and individuals.

Making it look easy

I have a ukulele now. And I take piano lessons. Add in the drum set in the basement and the guitar in the closet and there are a lot of musical opportunities in the house these days. Right now, the uke is the winner…it sits out by my desk and I pick it up about every day. Can’t say I practice any of the rest of the instruments that much.

Of course, I am only playing the one song I know right now (I’m Yours by Jason Mraz) but the more I play it, the easier it gets. Practice makes perfect.

All of this leads up to something that I have been thinking about for a while but never got down to writing about it until now. We went to hear Steve Martin play his banjo this weekend at the lovely Ryman Auditorium in Nashville. Yes, the home of the Grand Ole Opry! It was my first show there and I hope it won’t be my last as it was a great performance space. Wonderful acoustics, fun pews (not TOO hard) and a top-notch show to boot. Steve Martin was a pro with the banjo and his band was phenomenal.

Add in the fact that his opening act was the multi-talented John McEuen of the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band and that he had guest vocals from Dan Tyminski and Rhonda Vincent as well as closed the show with Earle Scruggs playing Foggy Mountain Breakdown and you get the gist that it was a truly wonderful night of music.

But, what I have been thinking about was how easy they all made it look. McEuen went from guitar to banjo to fiddle without even taking a breath it seemed. If I put down the uke and sit at the piano, I have to fidget and think and get all set up to get going. It is amazing how at ease he seemed with all of the instruments and just being on stage. And, I know it comes from practice.

To take it from music to techy – I can sit down at a Mac and then move to a PC and then to an iPhone with the same ease. I have been told many times during training “you make it seem so easy”. And, that is my goal – to make it seem easy but to also really just make it easy. But, there does take some practice. Some time with the “instrument” whether it is an operating system or a software application or a new peripheral. You have to spend some time with it and learn how to work it, where things are and so on. Then, moving between all of these things gets to be much smoother. And, just like how a guitar player can probably pick up a uke and make some decent noises – the more tech you play with the easier it is to pick up something new just because of all of the practice you did before.

Blog Action Day – Coming on October 15

Join the conversation.

How we pay tribute others

I guess I am at that age where many of the famous people who were influential on my growing-up are starting to die. I noticed that several of my recent posts have been about recent deaths. Yesterday, we lost Mary Travers (the Mary of Peter, Paul and Mary). While Michael Jackson certainly was a huge part of my adolescence, the trio of PPM were also very much in the mix as I listened to a lot of their music when I was young and then continued the love affair with many hours sitting around a campfire singing their songs with other campers, then as a counselor and finally now, continuing the tradition each year with my annual campout with friends from those summer camp days.

All of this death has me thinking about how we pay tribute to these celebrities who are so influential for whatever reason: crushes, aspirations of similar stardom, talents that create art that speaks so deeply to us and so on. It is interesting to note how those tributes have changed over the years and with the technologies available to those who feel need to “tributize” someone.

After Michael Jackson died, it was almost immediately that the tributes started pouring in via blogs, YouTube, twitter, Facebook, MySpace and more. There were mashups, postings of clips from interviews, artwork and more.

Patrick Swayze’s death probably prompted the same reaction. I was not as affected by his death as others around me were but that is probably another blog post on another blog.

I did a quick search on Mary Travers this morning on blogs, YouTube and Twitter. While there were a few podcasts and audio tributes last night, I didn’t find as much as I would have thought. And that makes sense. Mary’s audience is older and her work is not so much in the digital realm. I have one CD and the rest of her music I have on LP album and cassette. That adds a hurdle to making an online tribute so it cannot happen so “immediately” as Michael Jackson or even John Hughes, as I posted earlier.

I only wonder how the technology will change how we memorialize people, both famous and not, in the future. I think the feely part of the equation will always be there…we have a human need to eulogize, share grief and express admiration for someone’s life and how it touched ours. But, how we do it is certainly changing. It is easier, faster and much more public.

Thinking about my own tribute rituals, I recalled when John Lennon was shot. I was a freshman at Virginia Tech. My roommate and I got all of our albums together and played them all night while other girls on our hall came by. Slowly, a little shrine developed with his photo, candles, a flower or two and just a bunch of folks sitting in the yellow candlelight listening to Lennon sing us to sleep. Last night, I played two Peter, Paul and Mary albums on my turntable and then put their jackets in my LP album frames as my tribute. I guess that will her shrine for now. For Michael Jackson, I blogged about his influence and found plenty of videos to embed. That also makes sense, because part of MJ’s art was so visual that you need the video to appreciate it, share it and pay tribute to this talents. I dont’ think you need video with Mary Travers as much.

But, just because I think this song is beautiful (a tribute to John Denver as he wrote it), here is one Mary Travers song to share.

My Cyborg Name

Get Your Cyborg Name

Google Doodle

I just liked this one yesterday.

Albany Georga – a city of two bridges

Just returned from a quick work trip down (way down) to Albany, GA. I was excited to learn in my pre-trip research that I had totally forgotten this was the birthplace of one of my absolute favorites: the incomaparable Ray Charles.

So, I had to bring my entire cohort of travelers to the downtown area to pay an homage visit to the Ray Charles Plaza. It was a lovely spot with benches that looked like piano keys. Curving pathways in black and white, wooden swings, nice landscaping and a central fountain with a life size sculpture of Ray seated at a piano performing, microphone and all.

The only disappointment was the lack of Ray’s music. There were speakers everywhere and the woman at the hotel said that music was playing. But, not on the days I was there.

I had to go back the next morning to grab some photos from the sunrise across the Flint River that then bathed the sculpture with the nice first light of the day. The slideshow is below.

The other thing that I noticed were the two bridges. There was the “new” bridge that we crossed to enter the downtown area. Modern looking, with a some neat metal arches on the end. That road when through downtown and passed a new Hilton Garden Inn, a new looking jail and other government buildings.

The other “old” bridge was mason work with arches, etc. It was blocked off, even to pedestrian traffic. The road that led from that bridge to the downtown contained an entirely different world. The road was lined with shops, local restaurants, and plenty of empty buildings as well.

I was glad we went down both roads but I was sad to see that the more interesting road to welcome someone to Albany for the first time was the one from the old and unused bridge. This struck me and is something i want to think about some more in context to how we approach anything new: there are usually two bridges to it (sometimes more) I wonder which bridge is more useful: the old bridge that might be less modern but takes you to some pretty interesting sites or the new, modern bridge that might be safer and take you to slick, new stuff but you might miss some cool stuff along the way.  I want to try to make sure I use both bridges and see all the paths.

Enjoy the show:

This is my generation of movies

Feel like I have been saying goodbye to a good part of my childhood/young adulthood lately.

RIP – John Hughes.

Happy 3rd Birthday to Techy-Feely!!

In some ways it seems like a much longer time has passed since I blogged for the first time here at my own little corner o’ the Intarwebs! And, in other ways, I still feel like I am just figuring stuff out. I certainly am on other parts of the web. But, I clearly recall installing Wordpress and then staring at it going: “Now what?”. Now, I have a version of the multiuser platform running at my college and I feel much more comfortable diving into the database tables and taking a peek.

But, today marks the third anniversary of this here website. It has been joined along the way by several others in my account – mostly for friends and family but I also grabbed my own Vanity URL because I truly believe in the not to distant future, it will be crucial to control and own your personal space on the web. Not necessarily for “brand control” – although for folks who live and die by their online rep, that is not a bad idea but just because it can serve as a central point to pull together all of the places where you are on the web into one spot. Makes the whole out of the parts, so to speak. Still working on that project for me as well.

Anyway, enjoy some virtual cake for Techy-Feely today! Between the Project 365, finding tidbits to share with my three readers and just plain thinking “out loud”, it has been fun – even if only for me!

The Inaugural Post from 2006: Techy-Feely » Hello World!

Image: ‘He’s so Pleased!!‘
www.flickr.com/photos/48915783@N00/28051595

Where were you forty years ago?

I am a space fan, I am the first to admit. I almost have to be, don’t I? Can you claim the word “techy” and not have at least some passing interesting in space and space travel?

Besides the requisite Star Wars and Star Trek fandom, I am also a big fan of NASA program and have been since I was a youngster. All of the excitement and re-enactments of this historic fortieth anniversary (See http://wechoosethemoon.org/) has got me reminiscing back to those days.

Of course, I answered “astronaut” on the forms that asked: What do you want to be when you grow up? (I also rotated between TV cameraman, nurse, teacher, paramedic and cowboy – among others). But, space and traveling through space has always fascinated me. And, it still does. I applied to the Teacher in Space program even though I was still in undergraduate school. I remember talking with other teachers about it later and them asking if I could still want to do it after the Challenger accident that claimed Christa McAuliffe. My answer is always: YES!

I WANT to see the Earth from above.
I WANT to see the moon up close and personal.
I WANT to feel the lack of gravity
I WANT to see so many stars that my mind cannot comprehend what it is seeing

I remember watching the Apollo 11 mission with my family. Mom and Dad got a new television that summer and I have always heard to reasons: one to watch the lunar landing and the other (since it was a color TV) so that Mom could see the red hair on some character on a soap opera she watched. I pretty much believe either one but chose to go with the first reason.

So the names of Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin were easily thrown around our house like we knew them. I built NASA models like the one above (my favorite but I also build many of the rockets and the lunar rover buggy – that one was hard!). I read books about NASA history. In fact, I totally latched on to the Mercury astronaut Gus Grissom as a favorite. I think I picked him out from a group photo and decided he was my favorite. When I read that he died when I was about 5 (before the space fascination began, I suppose), I remember being pretty sad about that.

So, as we have the web sites with historic photos, NASA releasing digitally enhanced videos and many Twitter historical re-enactments, take a few minutes to think about how awesome this trip of Apollo 11 truly was: we did go where no one had gone before. The technology itself might seem less than sleek and modern but it got the job done and the feeling that crew must have had when they landed back in the capsule splashing down in the ocean must have been something else.

I will enjoy my Twitter feed today as we think back 40 years to the one giant leap we made.