Friday, July 31, 2009

Defying Gravity Wiki

Ok - this thing is coming along - if anyone wants to help or make suggestions or just take a look - more and more information will be added as time permits - let me know if it totally sucks, is ok, or is a masterpiece ;)

defyinggravity.wetpaint.com

Important Thought of the day



Oh yeah as the Supremes said - you can't hurry - nope ;o)

Tuesday, July 28, 2009

When a song gets into your soul (head)

Sometimes a song just sticks in my head/mind/soul/being/esse/whatever

Right now, for some reason, Soul Meets Body by Death Cab For Cutie (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s9JB2ETgatI) is doing that to me. This song just keeps haunting me, I keep listening to it - along with "Wish you Here" (by Pink Floyd - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3DXCHa9BYfE)just keeps digging deeper, prying out all shorts of rambles and thought paths and such - especially the lines:

"where soul meets body"

"A melody softly soaring through my atmosphere"

"If the silence takes you"

From the other song it is the line about two lost souls swimming in the fishbowl - we are all just fish in someone's fishbowl being watched.... hehe

Ah wellllllllll onto more thought------------------------



"Soul Meets Body" Death Cab For Cutie

I want to live where soul meets body
And let the sun wrap its arms around me
And bathe my skin in water cool and cleansing
And feel, feel what its like to be new

Cause in my head there’s a greyhound station
Where I send my thoughts to far off destinations
So they may have a chance of finding a place
where they’re far more suited than here

And I cannot guess what we'll discover
When we turn the dirt with our palms cupped like shovels
But I know our filthy hands can wash one another’s
And not one speck will remain

And I do believe it’s true
That there are roads left in both of our shoes
But if the silence takes you
Then I hope it takes me too
So brown eyes I hold you near
Cause you’re the only song I want to hear
A melody softly soaring through my atmosphere

Where soul meets body
Where soul meets body
Where soul meets body

And I do believe it’s true
That there are roads left in both of our shoes
But if the silence takes you
Then I hope it takes me too
So brown eyes I hold you near
Cause you’re the only song I want to hear

A melody softly soaring through my atmosphere
A melody softly soaring through my atmosphere
A melody softly soaring through my atmosphere
A melody softly soaring through my atmosphere



-------------------

Wish You Were Here - Pink Floyd

So, so you think you can tell
Heaven from Hell,
Blue skies from pain.
Can you tell a green field
From a cold steel rail?
A smile from a veil?
Do you think you can tell?

Did they get you to trade
Your heroes for ghosts?
Hot ashes for trees?
Hot air for a cool breeze?
Cold comfort for change?
Did you exchange
A walk on part in the war,
For a lead role in a cage?

How I wish, how I wish you were here.
We're just two lost souls
Swimming in a fish bowl,
Year after year,
Running over the same old ground.
What have we found
The same old fears.
Wish you were here.

Saturday, July 25, 2009

My Mom would have liked Defying Gravity

I am up 4:25am on a friday night (ok saturday morning) watching.... the NASA channel - yes the science geek's insomniac answer to the infomercial channel.

For a bit it was just the mission control room/center with the computers and the big screens. and not much else Then they started with the day's highlight's program.

They woke up the astronauts this morning with Pink floyd - "Wish you were here" and I thought looking at the screen and the song - Damn this is like that show coming up, "Defying Gravity". A picture of the shuttle, space and a cool ass song playing.... This led me to think - my mom would have liked the show DG - yeah I have not seen it yet and it may still flame and burn like a meteoroid, but she would have watched it.

She loved science fiction and especially space. This is because she was going to be a space scientist. She was in college in Florida in the training program - she would have been one of those mission control people. But then a few things happened, including she started going blind and then other issues and well she dropped out of college and never got back to that point.

But she always remained fixated on space. When we got cable, she found the NASA channel. She always had it on. As her problems got worse, she would lose herself in the channel. It became another level to her too, not just her dreams and desires and her science interest. But my mother also struggled with insanity. She was clinically diagnosed with a few disorders and labeled mentally insane. We had many... experiences because of that - but the one I mention in this odd entry that does have continuity, I swear, is she believed, and I do mean believed she was not from Earth. A person who is mentally impaired rarely knows they are and their reality is just that - real.

But she believed she was from another planet, one that has led me to have a fondness for a certain constellation, her favorite of course, ask me about it if you wish, that is another story, but well, because she believed this, she always was looking for a way to go home and to contact her home. She would often use the cable box to try and talk to the shuttle and use them and the NASA channel to maybe connect. She was so alone, very alone and had faith that someday we would contact others in space and she would finally make it home and not be alone and be happy.

I was a teenager and then young adult when we got cable and when she would have these episodes. I would sit with her sometimes through the night or morning or such, just watching the damn channel so she would not be alone and because sometimes she needed a person to work the remote control while she talked. Of course then, we would start to talk about the science, we would pull out my physics book and she would work through problem after problem and she had them right, make no mistake, my mom was crazy, but brilliant. She would be talking to outer space one moment and then solving the equations to get there the next.

I rarely talk about these memories and some I know my sisters are not that aware of even, so here this is as they wanted to know more about their mother and even father (who left when I was 8 and a half so I don't have great memories either and he was a bastard, but that is another story), but as this show, defying gravity, is coming up, many of these memories have been coming back.

Seeing a space shot with a song playing in the back ground - the concept of being alone and searching for life - just the whole package....

So yes, I am interested in this show, most think it is just because I like sci fi in general and because I have this infatuation with a certain actress starring in it, which, yes, that helps :P but there is a deeper reason why I want to watch it.

I share this because it reminds me, along with so much else, that often a person's actions are not always so obvious and that there may be multiple reasons and stories. That is what I like to dig out and tease and try to find, the layers and stories that make up the world and people and life.

So - I will be watching. Sure mainly because I like a certain actress but also to pull out other details and other connections, ones that might not be so obvious...

Thursday, July 23, 2009

Students and group work

from my facebook sharing wall thingy-ma-jig


I know students hate group work, they always complain about it, but it is so important. I just hate getting bitched out (excuse my french) by students - especially college students - don;t find problems people - come to me with solutions. I get so scared when peple say they hate group work and online collaboration and have to meet face to face and yet the world - the WORLD PEOPLE is moving to that

sigh, I always take it so personal when students complain, now it is a grumbly day, damn it


ok fine, solutions julie, solutions, next time - I bring more explanation why group work is so important and how to better structure group meetings and facilitate social collaboration... yes, think positive, not how much I wanna {{bleep}} right now -hmm where's the dartboard.....

Flames, lights and shadows

I met a flame this week. A flame is someone who is just brighter and more alive than most. We had a three day workshop on Co-teaching presented by Dr. Becky Hines. She is an amazing presenter, speaker and personality. Just finding out about what she has done, what she thinks, how she approaches life and how many people she touches was incredible. People can just live, most of us do that, we're lights : ) Some can actually distract, depress and worse, shadows. And then there are the ones that flare and sparkle.

You know you've met a flame because you just feel so damn good inside after. You admire them, wish you knew them better and can see, can actually SEE the difference they are making, not just in their little sphere, but in a much bigger, larger sense.

I love people watching and listening to stories, but especially flames. You truly don't run into them everyday or often, sure sometimes lights flare a bit, get a little brighter or darker, but true flames always are just there and brilliant. And the best thing, they aren't trying to be that or do that, it's just the way they are.

Alright, off to watch some more demos on Google Wave, work on some tutorials for TubeTilla and converting videos, work on the wetpaint Defying gravity site (anyone interested in helping out with that???? come on you know you wanna :P

And this and that - ok - signing out for now....

Friday, July 17, 2009

Arizona

You know, I do so miss many things about Tucson and Arizona in general

My sisters and family
The landscape which is just sparse and brown and rocks and sands and small plants
cactus
the mountains
the architecture of so many ranch type house and most of those being made of brick and concrete
the fact there is a larger population of people who follow certain things and lifestyles I do
the colors - dusty and calm and earthy
the way the roads are laid out
the bigness of the city
the many venues of music and theater and other things to do
The U of A

And so much more : )

Ahhhhhh Arizona

Tuesday, July 14, 2009

Quick mid-work and vacation trip update

Finished with the NAF conference. I SURVIVED the presentation - whewwww, we had over 75 people attend - room was filled. the two students were AWESOME - I picked up some great stuff including going to use Joomla and got this 844 page book to read (I have nothing to do and lots of time, right...:P it is on social media

Having fun with family visiting - my sisters work these first few days, so spending more time kicking around with the kids. Getting a little behind on things but ah well - I'll muddle through.

Ok off to finish this and that - whew

Thursday, July 09, 2009

Defying Gravity TV series promo

Wheeeeeeeeeeeeeee it is coming http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Q2_EtZkjH4

and been working on my mahalo pages too for it - http://www.mahalo.com/defying-gravity

Yay for new CC material (and found out she will be doing a guest spot on the TV show Dexter hehe

Friday, July 03, 2009

music - lovely music

Picked up some music - a splurge

Now 31, Ultra 2009 (dance music), American Idol Season 8 - this is more for my sister, but will listen first :P yes I am opening a "gift" hehe, Sister Sludge the definitive Groove collection and a Metal Rock collection - yes a variety - good for the soul ;)