Me in front of another one of those highly decorated flood irrigation valve thingies

Uploaded by www.cellspin.net

Flood irrigation valve monument (& Jer, Blue, & grandkids)

Uploaded by www.cellspin.net

Walking to downtown Tempe saw this gorgeous bush! Wish i knew what it is!

Uploaded by www.cellspin.net

Liam at the park

We are at the park around the corner from the house this morning. The temp here in Tempe is in the high 50s. Seems odd for December. Liam is having fun on the climbing bars--he is all boy! Chloe is in her stroller observing the world. After the park, we will head to the local pasty shop for a late lunch. I love being able to walk to everything.

Stay tuned... more later!

Liam at the park

Uploaded by www.cellspin.net

Drinking White Wine in the Sun

Seems appropriate to post this as I land in Arizona to spend Xmas with my son and daughter (she's more than a daughter-in-law) and grandchildren. Will pick up som wine on the way and lift a glass to all of you out there. Kiss someone you love today! Cheers!

Talking to Australia

This morning I was on Skype with my daughter in Perth. 9 am my time is 8 pm hers. So she was playing with Juliette, my new granddaughter, just before bedtime. The baby was rolling about on the bed and squealing, while gramma and mom had serious girl talk about nappies (diapers), playing in the spa (hot tub), and what baby did all arvo.

While online I used Jing to do some screen capture photos and to video my baby girl's baby girl at play.

This is the thing I love about the brave new world we live in: I am in touch with everyone all the time! My daughter in OH posts her daughter's adventures on her blog. My daughter in DC texts me and chats with me regularly in gtalk. With Skype I get to webcam with my son, grandson and granddaughter in AZ as well as my daughter and her family in Australia. We all make phone calls, of course, but now I can see them all as well as hear my children's voices. And then there is the blogging and facebooking and tweeting we do back and forth, updating each other on a daily (sometimes hourly!) basis.

Just 20 years ago my parents had to wait until a holiday to see their grandchildren, my children, because we lived several states apart. Going overseas meant being out of touch until you got home because phone calls were too expensive except in emergency. Even long distance calling was kept to a minimum because of phone bills and rates. The internet has changed the nature of communication and that is a marvelous thing. Why just this morning I got friended in Facebook by my cousin in TX with whom I only recently reconnected.

Today, thanks to the technology of Twitter, Facebook, blogs, Skype, and the many Google marvels like gtalk, gtalk video, and wave. I can be in touch with multiple friends and colleagues. My tweets spill into my gtalk and FB statuses. My blog posts show up on my FB wall. There are people who say we share to much information. Me, I like the idea of a transparent society. I love this techno-geek shit!

Oh, and BTW...

One more thing about the Poets.org Free Verse Project, on the main page there are the those photos chosen by AAP to represent the best of the best of the mashups. Here is my personal favorite:Gonna go make more coffee now and get back to work.

April is National Poetry Month

Yes, I know it isn't April yet. But this morning I got an email that the posters are coming soon. The Academy of American Poets (at Poets.org) puts out a great poster celebrating poetry every year well before April. Here's how you get one for yourself:

Free National Poetry Month posters are available by request—while supplies last—to teachers, librarians, and booksellers. Submit your request now to receive the poster in time for April 2010. Sign up > But don't wait until April to celebrate poetry! The other thing you can do right now is participate in the Free Verse Project. This is a very cool way to mashup poetry and photography. First check out some of the cool photos in the Poets.org Flickr group like the one below which was chosen to be last years AAP Poetry month poster! Watch the whole slideshow here! Then go out and create your own poetry and graphic mashup! Post it on your Flickr page and submit it to the group. Who knows, maybe you will be chosen for the next April is Poetry Month poster!

Poetry Society of America and the bus system of LA

Keep your eyes open on the Los Angeles bus system where poems are appearing!
In tis one, Samuel Taylor Coleridge offers his definition of a passionate love:

Desire

Where true Love burns Desire is Love's pure flame ;
It is the reflex of our earthly frame,
That takes its meaning from the nobler part,
And but translates the language of the heart.

Read more about this joint effort of the Metro LA bus system and the Poetry Society of America at: https://psa.fcny.org/psa/poetry/blog/la_is_for_romantics/

Twitter Stats

The internet constantly amazes me. I have been Twittering for a while now. It links to my Facebook page and updates my status. I find people I haven't seen in ages and get back in touch. I follow my favorite writers and talk to them. And I see who follows me and reads what I write with Google Analytics. Now a very nice fellow, Damon Cortesi, has put up pages where you can track the stats (gratis even, though if you can throw money his way that would be nice too!) on your twitterings. These are my stats.

And here is my Tweet cloud--everyone I talk to and everything I talk about:

akron @amandapalmer amen angel available bancroft @barackobama birthdayblackberry blog blogger book budget cable car @cbarzak cbs china chinese class classic @colinmeloy comecomputers contemporary coraline costume crackberry cup @danchaon date day december desktop did didnt digitaldiscovered disney @dkjpusa dollhouse driving edu eggs facebook fans fb featured feeling fend finding flu fm fungoing good google @hadesarrow halloween haroun hes issue join @joshwhedon kelly king knock know kokosleave let lets life lit little @lkhamilton long look loop lots love m74kpv make meetings mercedes mixed monkeymorning need needed neil @neilhimself new news nose @nytimes office oh ohio oplin org pakistaniaatpics procrastinating psychic ramadan read reading really reimbursed rest @robertleebrewer rt sad say schedule@shannon_anicas shout sigh signing sista smart springboard start status story students sunday tales thats thinkthinking thought today touch transformed_ tweetstats twitter twittering uakron uber unfollowing university viigovirtualit want way week weekend weekends went @whedonfannews woman women work www yeah yes yr

Cool, No? I love technology.