Tag Archives: Housekeeping

Having to do with the blog, its maintenance, and upkeep.

Crystalline Moments

Quartz crystalsI finally have come to terms with my misgivings about the memoir form. Those objections are of long standing, but I guess changing perspectives go along with changing age. The fact is that I no longer have difficulty with the skewness of the typical memoir–as long as all that skewing is kept somewhat in check.

The younger me was rather jaundiced on the form. An occasional, “Oh sure…,” has been heard to fall from my lips when reading them. The self-serving way many memoirists embellish and ignore facts in their own behalf was grating, but I have come to overlook even things such as that. Truth comes in the arid, austere, rigorous variety–the truths upon which we all can agree–but it also comes flavored with varying degrees of human experience and bias–less universally agreed upon, but perhaps more easily applied to everyday life.

In keeping with my new acceptance of the form, I am launching a series of short memoirs upon the world. These are remembrances from my youth, mostly, with some kind of twist that I hope will broaden their appeal. I have found that these memories are distinguished by the fact that they are still so remarkably clear in my mind, even after half a century or more. I therefore consider them “crystalline moments.”

Although I am digging back into bygone days, I am trying to use some 21st century tools to do so.  For the places and things I mention, especially those that might prove unfamiliar or interesting in their own right, I have added digital images, Google Maps, and Wikipedia references for clarification. Fans of that kind of truth can have their merry fill of it. Go ahead and explore these external links, but see if you can make your way back to my little memories. You might find something there for which Wikipedia could find neither room nor license.

Thank You, Ibiblio!

This is just a quick post thanking the folks at Ibiblio.org for the great service they have done for me and many others by allowing us to host our various resources here. If you check out Ibiblio’s main page, you will see that the resources span quite a gamut. They call themselves “The Public’s Library,” and it is indeed true.

I first became aware of Ibiblio back when it was called Sunsite. It was a big download repository for Linux and other software back then (and it still is). It became Metalab for a few years, and then, with an expanded mission and vision, it became Ibiblio.

This organization has remained true to some outstanding, egalitarian principles over the years. While most of America seems devoted to enriching itself or to consumption of resources of one kind or another, Ibiblio has busied itself providing resources for free. By hosting sites such as Creative Commons, they have contributed to the expansion of the vision of sharing and given it an organizing principle.

Paul Jones has been at the helm for much of this time and doubtless deserves credit for maintaining the purity of Ibiblio’s vision. Kudos on a great organization! We all appreciate it a lot!

Greetings, etc.

This is the first post on this blog. As such I suppose I should lay out my purpose in initiating this project in the first place. As much as anything, it is an experiment, a proof-of concept sort of thing. I am enrolled in a class on 21st Century technologies, and our professor has encouraged the class to see what new technologies await us out there. What better way to “kick the tires on the 21st Century” than to start a blog of my own?

Now, many blogs have a central purpose, a raison d’etre, as it were. This one is way more random than that. The only organizing principle at work here is that it’s all spilling out of my mind. Well, whose mind is this, anyway? Not to identify myself too completely (and take the risk of identity theft), I’ll just frame myself as a world-weary boomer, an educator, and a person with lots of hobbies.

There. I think I’m safe from that identity theft bugaboo now. I mean, who wants to be that guy?

But my life as a public high school teacher has offered me the opportunity to observe quite a bit of what we’ll cal “human behavior,” for lack of a better word. A public high school is one of the best places there is for observing our culture, popular and otherwise, and how it affects us whether we like to admit it or not. Experience in that environment put one in touch with how we Americans raise our children and how we put value on the various aspects of our lives, and that is a big part of who we are.

Beyond cultural commentary, as an educator, I might have something to say about education from time to time. I have a two-year-old child, so I might talk about him a little. (I’ll try not to go on and on about him, though; I know how tedious that can be.) I spend a good bit of time outside, too–fishing, gardening, running, that sort of thing–so topics like that might find their way into the mix.

As I have said, though, I also spend time observing my fellow man (and woman). I find myself constantly amazed at what we are capable of, both the bad and the good, but mostly the odd and incomprehensible. When I can’t figure out why folks do the wacky stuff they do, I might just ask for input from the the world of blog readers. They seem to be a pretty literate bunch; they might offer some worthwhile insights for us to consider.

Oh, yeah. The name of the blog. With a name like mine, you’d think I would have gotten a lot of teasing growing up. Not so much, really, even when I found myself on the same soccer team as a guy named Sellers. Hey, that team won two high school state championships. Maybe that had a way of deflecting criticism, I don’t know. Anyway, when I Googled the phrase, nothing came up except misspellings of the more familiar term. It’s fair game! I nailed it down first!

Hey, big deal. Get over yourself.