Week 5, Thing 10

Seeing as I jumped ahead of myself with my last posting by having created an avatar, I decided to checkout some of the other image generators. Because I have no digital photos of my own to use, I decided to use Glassgiant.com's cereal box generator. It actually gave me a chance to combine my love of opera and my twisted sense of humor; I hope I haven't offended.

Week 4 , Thing 9

Well, I've used the RSS search tools, and was not really impressed with them. In my brief experience, the results lists seem to be too large and packed with too much junk to be really considered useful. I'm just not one of those cutting-edge techies, not that I'm worried about that!

I explored Merlin, which I had seen before; a great idea with much potential. Through Merlin, I linked over to Meez.com, and created an avatar. I really enjoyed doing this, and figured out how to post the avatar to my blog; quite easy! Anyone who knows me will admit that I didn't actually go wild in designing my avatar. It probably looks a lot like I actually look in real life; boring, I know.

Week 4, Thing 8

I found the RSS exercise to be relatively intuitive, as I had hoped it would be. Although I viewed the introductory video, as suggested, I decided to avoid any other tutorials in order to see how much of the exercise I could complete by just stumbling along. I was actually able to create an account and add feeds without having to consult anyone or any help files/tutorials. Of course I went about adding the first few feeds in a less than elegant way before I discovered the simplest method. Noodling about may be a good way to learn, but it can waste time!

I do agree that using RSS can be a time saver, especially for folks who regularly visit a large number of websites. It's practicality, however, is limited for someone like me, who's Internet habits can best be described as intermittent. I use the web regularly, but mostly for work. My personal use is very targeted and goal specific, such as online purchases, checking out a performance schedule, etc... My primary sources of news are newspapers and the radio. I use the web selectively for updates on ongoing events or to learn details about major events I hear murmurs about during the day. I guess the best way to describe my use of various media is cherry-picking; I use what best fits my needs and habits, not necessarily the latest and greatest.

In spite of the fact that RSS may not play a big role on my life any time soon, I can understand why someone else might use it regularly. It borrows a time-saving concept from print media, namely home delivery verses going to the newsstand. Some concepts are timeless and technology neutral, it seems.

Week 3, Thing 7

A few months ago when our television died, my wife and I purchased a High Definition set. Usually not ones to buy the latest techy gadgets (horrors!), we splurged a bit and got one, then upgraded to HD cable. I would never have thought that television could produce such increadibly clear pictures; amazing! It's like what the world would look like if you had better than 20/20 vision (is that possible?). I never really noticed how crappy the image on a CRT is until I saw the alternative. Who'da thunk?

HD is definitely an incredible application of technology to everyday life. It's just a shame that the programs on telelvision don't match the quality of the image. I'm afraid the television is still mostly a video monitor for our DVD and VHS (too many tapes to ditch it) players; we don't watch much network TV. Newton Minnow is still right, it's a vast wasteland.

Tag, I'm it!

I was tagged about three weeks ago, so it's time that I respond.

Here's how it works: Each player lists 8 facts/habits about themselves. The rules of the game are posted at the beginning before those facts/habits are listed. At the end of the post, the player then tags 8 people and posts their names, and then goes to their blogs and leaves them a comment, letting them know that they have been tagged, and asking them to read your blog to find out how it works!

On to the facts about me:
1) I have two dogs, both mutts, whom I absolutely love.
2) From first-hand experience, I know how cold it is 70 miles above the Arctic Circle!
3) I logged over 1300 flight hours as an Air Force aircrew member (C-5).
4) Opera is a passion (Does my blog's name give that away?).
5) I love my beer (craft brews, of course)!
6) I once went out for a beer in Santiago, Chile with a member of President George H. W. Bush's communications staff.
7) I have set foot on four of the seven continents.
8) I thoroughly enjoy cooking and wish I had more time to develop my skills.

I am tagging these blogs: Wine Knot, Tangled Web, scuba-do, Queen of Wii, Red Wine Voulet, Not Easy Being Green, Historyportal, and Birdwatcher

Week 3, Thing 6

In browsing through Flikr mashups, I came across Yahoo Travel's Trip Planner. I must admit that many of the mashups seemed to be nothing more than toys (which may be the point!), but Trip Planner is very practical.

Essentially, you can use it to plan your trip (hence the name!), but in a much more seamless and elegant way. Not only can you gather together information on your planned destinations (i.e. lodging, restaurants, museums, landmarks, etc...), but you can link everything to an an interactive map. In making plans, that map can also be used to locate nearby hotels or attractions, thereby becoming not only a tool to tie everything together, but one that is an integral part of the pre-planning exploration which is half the fun of travelling.

Once your trip is fully planned, you can print out driving directions to take with you. In addition, during the trip, you can record your experience in the journal feature, and afterwards post your photos to create an album/travelogue.

This is definitely an example of well-applied technology with a purpose; I think I may actually use it the next time I travel.

Week 3, Thing 5

Have had the chance to mess about with Flikr over the past month, but not the time to actually post about it. All I can say is, "Wow!" It can be quite overwhelming.

I checked out the map, which allows you to see what photos were taken at which site. It is a bit random, in spite of the geographical organization. I looked for photos taken near both my home and my worksite, and it was either an overwhelming number of photos or very little. Considering the two places I focused on, it might actually speak to the digital divide as the two are generally in different economic brackets, with my neighborhood being the lower of the two.

Not having a digital camera (I feel so left out!), I decided to post a link to an interesting photo posted to Flikr by someone else. Because my wife and I have just returned from vacationing in Cooperstown, New York, I decided to search for photos taken at the Alice Busch Opera Theater. The Busch Theater is the home of the Glimmerglass Opera Company, which has been in Cooperstown for about thirty years. Although Cooperstown is best known for the Baseball Hall of Fame, our main reason for going there was to attend an opera! What can I say? (We did visit the Hall of Fame!)

The link below will take you to a photo posted by Jim Van Meter; it is of the stage towards the end of the opera, and should give an good idea of why I did not enjoy the performance as much as I had hoped. The singing and musicianship were outstanding, but the staging was questionable at best, outlandish at worst. The best way to enjoy this production would be with closed eyes to avoid seeing what was happening on stage, which mostly had nothing to do with the story and got quite embarrassing after a while.

The opera was Monteverdi's "L'Orpheo", the production was heroin chic (as far as I can tell). Orpheus seemed to be stoned throughout most of the opera, and Euridice's passage to Hades was represented by (wait for it...) the soprano being taped to the wall (you can see remnants of the tape on the wall at the rear of the photo)! (If you are unfamiliar with the Greek myth of Orpheus, after his lover Euridice dies, Orpheus travels to the underworld to convince the gods to allow her to return with him.) Truly bizarre! I understand the NYT music critic was less than kind about this production; I hope to see the review soon.

Enough of my blather, just click the link below and take a look at the set for yourself.


http://www.flickr.com/photos/90139128@N00/1174124969/in/photostream/