Monthly Archives: April 2013

The Writer’s Clock

Write, write, write, revise, revise, revise! Sound familiar?

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The Writer's ClockJust in time for National Poetry Month, here is the perfect clock for poets and writers of all genres and stripes. Or stanzas and paragraphs…

You can get a Writers Clock for yourself or thewriter you love here.

PS Lots of great literary readings and events going on this month to celebrate the occasion of National Poetry Month! You’ll find me reading this Saturday night April 14 at 7pm in Santa Barbara at the Contemporary Arts Forum!

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Join the Internet Boycott April 22, 2013 to #STOPCISPA

Dear readers,

I am in support of Anonymous’s internet boycott. However, at this time I do not know how to install the code to make my site go dark; in fact, I may not be able to unless WordPress, my blogging platform, makes it available.

In the meantime, I leave you this letter, I urge you to watch the video, and please make the call. CISPAcat

Dear citizens of the internet,

We are Anonymous.

The United States Government is again attempting to control and censor the internet. The Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act has just recently passed the house.

This bill would allow major internet entities such as Facebook, Twitter, and Google to voluntarily share your personal information with the U.S. Government. This will not only affect users in the United States, but also anyone with an account with these companies.

This upcoming Monday, April the 22nd, we invite you to join Anonymous in an internet blackout. We encourage all web developers and website owners to go dark on this date. Display a message as to why you are going dark, and encourage others to do the same.

We hope, just like the successful protest over the Stop Online Piracy Act, we can encourage the senate to stop this bill.

Spread the message, and inform the world. We are Anonymous. We are the people. We are the internet. Knowledge is free.

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How To Do Library Research: UW Librarians Go Gaga

Fun video full of great information on how to do academic research!

The Write Alley

Library research is a necessary evil of running a business because it is unlikely your business can run on online research alone.

While library research can be intimidating, it doesn’t have to be. Watch this video and you’ll see that librarians “just wanna have fun.”

So next time you find yourself in a library approaching a research librarian for some help, remember this video and give the librarian a huge smile. You never know–he or she might just turn  up on YouTube!

Should you wish to compare, here’s the link to the original Lady Gaga song “Poker Face.”

(More about how to do library research in posts to come.)

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Chris Jordan: Melting the Ice in the Heart

Part 2 of Chris Jordan’s Trash Talk at Pacifica Graduate Institute.

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In a talk on April 9, 2013 at Pacifica Graduate Institute, I swiftly took notes while artist Chris Jordan spoke about how to present the magnitude of trash that we produce in such a way that the scale of consumption and refuse has meaning enough to transform our individual and cultural practices. (View videos and art and read Part 1 here.)

The following day in class and then at our EcoDreamers meeting, Ed Casey spoke about how Chris Jordan is practicing phenomenology. (A few days later, I got to thinking how haiku poets are also phenomenological. I’d already been thinking about how wine blogging is phenomenological.)

A lawyer by training and a photographer by passion, Chris Jordan’s work makes visible the unconscious behaviors that lead to unconscious yet conspicuous consumption. By making the unconscious visible, through this visibility, he makes it part of our consciousness.

Chapter-32-chris-jordan

 Once we are conscious…

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Midway: Chris Jordan’s TrashTalk (Part 1)

I presented this blog post in class last week, we watched part or all of the videos, and we discussed the connection to our own research projects. Important work!

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Did you know that 2.4 million pieces of plastic enter our oceans every hour? That 10% of the world plastic production enters the ocean? That 70% of the plastic in ocean flows from rivers?

ecoliteracy_graphicTuesday, April 9, 2013, artist Chris Jordan presented his work at Pacifica Graduate Institute where I am working on a PhD in Depth Psychology with an Emphasis in Community, Liberation, and Ecopsychology. On Wednesday, he joined some of us “EcoDreamers” for  a lunchtime conversation about the work, what it means, why it matters, and about how he is bringing it to the world.

Chris Jordan makes meaning from information by turning data, relevant materials, and statistics into art. This image above is made up of 2.4 million pieces of ocean plastic which represents the amount of plastic that enters the ocean every hour.

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Extra credit opportunity for my students!

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I wish Climate Change and the loss of polar ice was an April Fool’s joke. But it’s not. Climate change is seriously real and the new documentary Chasing Ice shows just how rapidly our planet, especially our polar regions, are changing due to anthropogenic causes.

Currently screening nationwide,  Chasing Ice is coming to the Ventura Film Society Tuesday, April 2, 2013 420 East Santa Clara, across the street from the Blue Orchid.

The film starts at 7:15.  Regular price for tickets is a $10 Donation. Student ticket price is $5 Donation.

After the movie, there will be three speakers:
Rick Ridgeway Patagonia’s VP of Environmental Initiatives
Patty Ridenour – Geology Professor / Ventura College
Rachel Morris, VCCool

According to the film,  “In the spring of 2005, National Geographic photographer James Balog headed to the Arctic on a tricky assignment:

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