Espan YO!

Everyday when I come to work, Senor Mendoza searches me out so that he can test my Spanish, see if I've learned anything since the last time he saw me. Well, this makes my day, even though I haven't. But someday I'd like to really surprise him with a few fantastic phrases. So, I'm really excited about starting my language lessons at www.LiveMocha.com. LiveMocha is one of the hottest Web 2.0 start-ups in the Seattle area which is "bringing language learning out of the classroom and into the online community, tossing aside limitations of geography, and providing a forum for people to interactively share their knowledge and skills". They have just enrolled their One Millionth user! The mission statement says they are "redefining the language learning market through the introduction of a language 2.0 platform that integrates rich dynamic online instructional content with a social network of native language speakers". I'm hoping that LiveMocha will breathe some life into all that learning I did back in the day and that it will be even more fun that 10th grade Spanish Club.

Power Out

Just last sunday, the 14th of September, I was attending the Memorial Service for Dr. Charles Summerson of the Ohio State University. A curmudgeon through and through, he had barley achieved even the slightest proficiency in email usage by the time his fabulous 92 year-old life had ended, a fact that his children apparently enjoyed chuckling about. Ironically, as we left his memorial service a tremendous wind blew through the University area knocking down trees and electric lines for miles around. I exclaimed "Oh, it must be the Doctor's ghost blowing through the place he loved so dearly". Yes, either that or Hurricane Ike's tailwinds hitting the midwest like a giant tornado with a duration of hours, not minutes as we are accustomed. One who eschewed technology was now taking out the electricity for hundreds of thousands of households in central Ohio. Well, I though it was a great coincidence anyhow.

What a wonderful storm that was! The blowing of great winds, the felling of great trees. Many were uprooted, their connectivity way too weak to withstand anything close to the 75 mph gusts that roared through our neighborhoods. The air was full of the sounds the of the cracking and ripping of branches and trunks. It didn't take long for our homes to lose eletricity - in fact, I'm surprised the power lasted as long as it did. We watched the winds for an hour or two, and them we stood in the streets with neighbors lamenting the losses. But the one remarkable thing that I noticed was how I immediately began to have creative thoughts and desires. Creatively speaking, I have been pretty much asleep for the better part of this year since my father died. All of a sudden however, I was thinking up wonderful things to cook on the grill (or a log fire!)for the next three days (in case it should take that long for power to be restored). I wanted to start projects AND see them through to completion. I wanted to clean things and organize things and read things. ALL of which I couldn't accomplish without a steady source of power, but all of which I HAVE done in just the few days since the power came back on. Thank you Ike, Chuck, God! That was just what I needed. A weaning from technology for a few days to discover bits and pieces of me that I had lost.

I Just Got Started

The generous, wonderful people for whom I work have decided that all of us un-hipsters should get to learning us some web skills. So here we all are, creating blogs and social networking accounts, clogging up the world wide web and wondering "why?". Why would I want to voice my opinions or observations to strangers? All I want to do is talk to the people with whom I live (and have them rok my sox by responding with syllables on occasion). Why would I want to stay up late working on a computer, torturing it to comply just so I can state an opinion? If I'm going to stay up late (and I probably won't, ever) I will sweat over a sewing machine, not a computer. I'm much better at getting results from a sewing machine, or my cobalt Kitchenaid, or 'my Dyson' (rhymes with Mike Tyson). Now those are Some Machines. I don't mean to be ill-spirited here, but I just don't see what all the fuss is about. There are plenty of ideas in the world. You find them in a thing called a book. Or, in an extra-large book-like thingy with lots of parts called an encylopedia (n-si-klo-pee-dee-uh). Fabulous ideas can also be found in artwork which lives in a museum (mew-zee-um) or a gallery (ga-ler-ee). Or in a film (film). And what about the sharing of ideas? Why share them with strangers online? Is it not much better to share them over a common meal or a crackly campfire? And music? Certainly it too is better shared in a parlor rather than on a 'pod. I am just like anyone else. I long for deeply meaningful human contact. I simply fail to understand how the internet is going to assuage that inner longing so common to man.

That being said, do stay tuned for future updates by which you will be able to view and enjoy my art, kids, husband, dog, friends, quilts, travels, flowers, remodels, extended family and tomatos. Oh wait, I don't actually have a dog. Uma belongs to a friend, I'm just her sitter.