Tuesday, January 31, 2006

Podcasting: Odeo

I'm actually using some tools from Odeo.com to demonstrate one way to use their FREE service! I just noticed while developing this post that our class will be covering Odeo later in February, so I won't spend a lot of time going into great detail. Here's the down-and-dirty:

Odeo is a free audio creation, storage, podcasting service. It is based out of San Francisco, California, and they began their business in December 2004. They have recently added features to incorporate video stream into the casting (webcasting). This is part one of many for my discovery path (translation: I haven't made a webcast yet), but I'm really excited about discovering the audio/video possibilities for my personal use on the internet. I will keep updates of my journey posted here.

For more specifics from Odeo developers Biz, Noah, and Ev, please listen to the audio clip they created using their own software below. It wanders around a bit, but the middle portion launched great brainstorming ideas in my head for what I could do with this service. And now, our special guest, Odeo...

Monday, January 30, 2006

Using Performancing

This is a post that I created using Performancing for Firefox.

Tuesday, January 10, 2006

Texts that Write Me


I am at a crossroad this year, this month, this moment. I am written both by everything and nothing, and as grandiose and over-stated as that may seem, I will tell you what I mean.

I have spent the last year being composed first (so they thought) by the military (a 12 month deployment to Iraq), and second (or last) by everything else. My personal exercise in self-composition was in acknowledging my ability to choose the composition more than ever before.

I am composed by military, rules, structure, protocol. I am drawn to locations of order, places with rules, and preferably rules that come naturally to me. A uniform, the Uniform Code of Military Justice (UCMJ), the Rules of Engagement (ROE), a duty to protect the Main Entry Control Point (ECP) for our base, and soldiers under my care and leadership -- these all composed me. I lived long periods of time in which I perceived myself as being written entirely by outside texts, and none of my choosing.

Then I started to choose. I chose makeup and perfume, manicures and jewelry. I persisted all the way to the fence dividing compliance and violation of the rules at hand. I was in a war zone, but I was choosing to be written by womanhood.

I am written by music. I am moved, and molded, shaken and entranced by music. Sometimes melody takes me for a ride, sometimes the emotion I think I can feel conveyed by the composer/author all the way through director and producer... through my speakers, to my spine, and then to my heart. I play the piano, and the best moments are when I can hear the genius of Debussy, Beethoven or Mozart through the feeble attempts of my fingers. I love feeling engulfed in the sound, complex sound, surrounding me and weaving me into its center. I love that feeling.

I am written by family. I have two brothers, a sister-in-law, and mom and dad. We are all adults, and we love each other's company. I attended my youngest brother's 21st birthday celebration just over a year ago, and it was a great transition for my siblings and me -- we could finally all go out to the bar together! My brothers and I often play music on guitars together, adding random other instruments at times, and getting so carried away that we lose track of time.

I hate admitting this one about myself: I am written by romance. I'm a softie. I'm gooey, spineless, mushy, gushy. I love cuddling up to watch a movie, taking a walk, jogging together, reading a book together -- I LOVE that stuff. The difficulty is that I'm written by my predisposition about what romance is. I've built this Superman-like ideal in my mind who's really a Frankenstein-Monster-collage of all the best traits I've ever encountered! Luckily, my brothers and Dad provide real-world proof that "real men" can actually be supermen too.

Womanhood and femininity write me. Every day I learn more about what that means, but the upshot is acceleration of my ability to claim strength. I love the power of being a woman. I love exhibiting drive in a public place, keen observation and coy conversation. Regulating my own stated information about myself increases my sense of ownership over my own identity. I enjoy my aggressive multi-tasking skills, and I have often caught myself purposefully pushing "opponents" to interactions which force them to multi-task as well, just so I can spar wits with them.

Finally, I am written by all things logical and mathematical. If I could take a room arrangement and liken it to a mathematical formula (and for some reason had time to do so), I would. I am inspired by analysis. I like taking quantitative -- or even qualitative for that matter -- information and creating structure within, designing an orderly pattern that would clearly communicate to outsiders. I like logically structured arguments, and even more so, I like discovering flaws in illogical arguments and fixing them.

There is more that composes me. I struggle to see where the writing of me has ever stopped or started, from birth until death, but this should be a pretty good start.