Winter in Yuma and a prodigal's return to blogging #sol18

It's been cold in Yuma, - 7° when I woke up this morning, up to 20° during the day and back down to 12° now. Excuse me if I seem obsessed with the temperature, wind too. I have breathing problems and winter walking can be a problem. I stay in, watch conditions for best time to walk. It's time to change the green, green blog banner photo for something more seasonally appropriate -- not picturesque snow because we haven't had more than a moderate dusting. Gray sky, yellow grass and bare branches are less aesthetic but more representative. This one should do nicely.



If not the best time of the year for old wheezer walkabouts, it is a good time to write, do online research and take courses. I registered for two Electronic Village Online TESOL workshops and if not behind yet, will soon be but enjoying the mental exercise and global conversation.

filling the book cases = really moving in

…short version catch up, emphasis on the final stage. I moved into my apartment at High Plains Manor, Yuma CO, mid-July. I've been acclimating, orienting, exploring and such. The apartment furnishing was spare and basic -- minimalist. Bookcases and boxes books finally made it out of my daughter's garage and over here.

#SOLSC: life slicing and sorting puzzle pieces

…This Tuesday's SoL image,"Slice of Life," is a 500 piece puzzle. Life is a puzzle.

I don't know how many pieces mine has. By now I've lost more than a few, possibly too many to reassemble a complete picture. They've spilled out of the box, rolled under furniture, been played with, carried away and hidden by the cats.

Now with a move coming on, I have to pack up some, but not all. Which ones do I take, re-home, throw or just leave behind? That's a daunting amount of pieces to sort, real or psychic -- sometimes both.

books&other—Diigo does #rhizo14, Wk4

 …w/ nod to #evomlit, #FutureEd—now #POTcert as well, not just because I am in them but for seeing them as related, entangled with Rhizomatic Learning, part of the community, along with once and future others. I'm still behind, albeit less here than in the others. Bookmark links though are catching up (note irony of bookmarks about "is books making us stupid" theme). There are links on books, words, writing, tyranny of received print cultureand so on, as well as still a few uncertainty links. Like I mentioned in last week's fake post: so what, rhizomes aren't linear. 

This venue feels like an alternative space, a basement dive or Jazz Keller that only a few habitues know how to find. Frequently, the Fb (so much larger and more active) group's thread return to 'what about lurkers' (elearning's version of Freud on women). Someone commented that 'doing nothing is doings something' (not unlike classic anarchist saying about voting). That is encouraging... makes me feel so much more productive now...as well as wondering about the need to feel productive. Somehow it calls to mind John Keats' letter 'On Negative Capability' (analogous to embracing uncertainty?) and the call to productivity as an 'irritable reaching after fact and reason.' How would that go to curriculum? Can scholars of the books and singers of the word read one another-- speak with one another, be part of the same community?

• Oral Tradition Founded in 1986, the Center for Studies in Oral Tradition stands as a national and international focus for interdisciplinary research and scholarship on the world’s oral traditions. Our long-term mission is to facilitate communication across disciplinary boundaries by creating linkages among specialists in different fields. Through our various activities we try to foster conversations and exchanges about oral tradition that would not otherwise take place. 

Tags: rhizo14, oral tradition, Week4, books, print culture, rhizome, CSOT CSOT publications include the journal Oral Tradition (http://www.oraltradition.org/ot/, 1986-) and three series of books: the Albert Bates Lord Studies in Oral Tradition (1987-96; 17 volumes); Voices in Performance and Text (1995-97; 3 volumes); and, Poetics of Orality and Literacy (2 volumes to date; 2004-). CSOT projects include: ISSOT, International Society for Studies in Oral Tradition, http://issot.org/, and The Pathways Project, http://www.pathwaysproject.org/Pathways