It's Your Move...

Always on the lookout for new books, I regularly check in with fellow blogger, Readerbuzz. A librarian and an avid reader, she always has some interesting reads posted on her site. This morning, while noodling around her page, an unknown term caught my eye: meme.

Well you can imagine that my first issue was proper pronunciation: /meem/ or /mim/ or /meemee/ ? Like any self-respecting web-crawler, I scurried to the source of infinite wisdom and googled it.

Here is what I found: as for pronunciation, the first two phonetic spellings seem to predominate web discourse. Ironically, pronunciation is the most complex aspect of this web2.0 phenomena.

Originally used in sociological and psychological constructs (Google it if you want the full discussion), the web application refers to an exponentially expanding discussion that revolves around a series of questions and answers. An author creates a series of compelling queries, publishes them, and hopes that readers will read, answer, and spread the news.

I'm not sure what the true motivation is: the thirst for answers to some of life's great questions or the desire to start a trend, to be noticed, to be noted and/or known. Somehow I'd bet on the latter. Who wouldn't want to give birth to some kind of cultural revolution? To be able to say, "I invented that move."

Not surprisingly, one of my favorite Seinfeld episodes, "Fusilli Jerry," explores the importance of having a "move." Although directly referring to sexual techniques, George makes an important point about "moves" in general: to Jerry he complains "You told David Putty your move and you didn't tell me? I need a move. You know I have no moves, Jerry. "

We all want something that will make us special, set us apart, define us. So, what is your move? Wait -- before you answer that question, let's put some parameters on this discussion!

First, we don't want to know about the intimate moments of your life. I'm sure there are other forums for those discussions, but you'll have to ask someone else: this blog is strictly "pg" or perhaps "pg-13."

Second, let's decide how a "move" is defined. For our purposes, a move is some act that either defines or is defined by the mover. For example, Elvis' move involved the swaying of the hips; Kramer's, falling; Johnny Carson's, the little salute... A move is some action that implicitly bears a signature.

So, I ask again, what is your move? What words, actions, habits, and/or ticks help to define you?

Questions to consider:
1. Do you have a signature move or movement?
2. A saying, phrase, or idiom which peppers your parlance?
3. An identifying mark or brand?
4. A particular article or artifact that people would associate with you?
5. A theme song?

Don't worry about sharing your carefully cultivated characteristics. We, the readers of this blog, collectively agree to attribute any moves we adopt to the original source. For example, the shoulder dance: that move belongs to Nancy. The gumbo recipe? Grandpa's, of course.

As Jerry remarks to George, "The point is when something like this is passed along, one must be certain that it's going to be used in a conscientious way. This is not some parlor trick to be used---" (http://www.seinfeldscripts.com/TheFusilliJerry.htm).

So give us your best, fair readers. We won't steal them, we won't adulterate them, but we just might copy them!

Oh, my answers?
1. Do you have a signature move or movement?
Clinched fists - my body language of choice for any activity from teaching to running to chatting at a cocktail party. (Best executed with a little wad of Kleenex or paper towel inside.)

2. A saying, phrase, or idiom which peppers your parlance?
"For lack of a better descriptor," "Well...," and "All that good stuff."

3. An identifying mark or brand?
I have lots of freckles and (I hesitate to even admit it) moles. I didn't choose these, of course, and find them enough on their own. No further embellishment needed.

4. A particular article or artifact that people would associate with you?
A can of Diet Coke. In fact, in a caricature drawn by one of my students, the "ubiquitous Diet Coke" (her words, not mine) featured prominently.

5. A theme song?
"Brick House."

Again, here are the questions to consider:
1. Do you have a signature move or movement?
2. A saying, phrase, or idiom which peppers your parlance?
3. An identifying mark or brand?
4. A particular article or artifact that people would associate with you?
5. A theme song?

My Web2.0 Training Plan

It seems that late summer and early fall are made for planning. Time to mark the calendar, to look ahead, to pencil in some events and to commit others to ink. The summer grants the luxury of taking each day as it comes, living spontaneously and as the spirit moves, but the fall demands greater focus and deliberate choices. Oh, how I hate the advent of fall...


I usually follow other people's schedules rather than develop any of my own - with the strictures of school-year calendars, lesson plans, athletic schedules, social events and training plans, what time is left for self-made plans anyhow? (I must sound much the victim here - forgive the plaintive tone: it is not as I intended, and I will see if I can right the situation as I go...)


A great fan of the calendar, my husband's planner gleams with dates color-coded by event, organization, and/or key player. and Want to know where we will be in January of 2009? Well, the chances are that his Alma-mater (The University of Houston) will play in one of three bowl games, and they are likely to play in cities x, y, or z, so those dates and places are already penciled in...

I will admit that this detailed planning does help to add some structure to our lives. To play off of my beloved, Robert Frost, something there is that loves a schedule!

Rather than a rigid graphic depiction of life's commitments, I like the idea of the calendar as a plan for my future - a way to achieve my goals. Some of you are thinking that the difference exists only in semantics, but I beg to differ: the difference is in philosophy. Although I resist being tied down to dates and times, I embrace the idea of growth and progress. And, if a calendar or training plan will help me progress toward those ends, then I embrace it.

Along those lines, I am developing a plan for my nascent web2.0 skills. A firm believer in the adage , "Use it or lose it," I worry that all I learned this summer will fade into the institutional, antiseptic mist of the school year. I hope that our friends at library2play will continue to augment their blog and training plans, but in case they don't I have come up with one of my own.
My ideas follow, ordered only by the chronology of the Library2play blog. I welcome any ideas or further suggestions that any of you learn2players or any other technology-savvy readers might have...

Well, that's enough for now. It is still summer, the temperature has dipped below 100 degrees, and the overgrown bushes on my back patio beg for trimming.

Items in black print have received no action; green, done; pink, in progress.

1. Modify my avatar and maybe put one on my mhs website? Is that possible?
Yes, this is possible, but I haven't done it yet.

2. Put a link from on my mhs website to my blog?

3. Ask vwb how to put the proper citations on my flickr photos.

(Since I am always after my students about proper documentation, I can hardly demand less of myself.)
Received instructions but haven't executed them yet...

4. Limit the time I spend on mashups or image generators to 10 minutes. Seriously!
Nice thought, but have you seen my voki? Hamnet, the cyberpig?

5. Figure out how to retrieve files from Google notebook;

figure out how to delete items from Google reader;

decide whether I really want to have an rss reader.
Have contacted a fellow blogger who reported success w/ Google reader; waiting for response.

6. Delete my account with Library Thing and update my account with Shelfari.
Deleted account with Library Thing,

started updating Shelfari account,

removed Shelfari widget from my blog.

Thinking of another way to include my novels and reading list.

Will have to consult librarians' blogs to see what they do...

7. Decide who to include in my "circle of the wise."
I added a two blogs that deal w/educational technology to my list.

There is a third that I want to include, but it is not one that is regularly updated, so...
Change in plans here: Since very few of our learn2players are still blogging, I deleted my bloglist, at least for now. Once people are up and posting again, then I'll start adding again.

8. Find out which learn2players are going to continue to blog.

(This seems inextricably tied to number 7).

9. Completely revisit Delicious and Technorati, Rollyo as well.

I didn't pay enough attention to these topics the first time.

I think, though, that Delicious really serves the purpose that I want Rollyo to...

10. Decide which to pursue for use with my class:

a blog, a wiki, or a ning?

Maybe get some group feedback on this one...

11. Look at the list of 43 things that inspired this initiative,

and see what I can add from that list.

12. Get the advice of other learn2players

and see what their recommendations are.

13. Seek students' advice on new and emerging technologies.

They are always ahead of the curve.

(As was so painfull apparent this afternoon as a former student

informed me that the term web2.0 is already passe. Huh!)

14. Find out what a meme is...
Done. See 8/6/08 post.

15. Update and revise newsfeeds.
Ahthough I never linked these to my blog, I have updated my google reader,

eliminating those that I rarely read in hopes that I might

actually read the ones remaining.

Maybe I need to put these widgets on my blog.

I'm more likely to check them there than the google reader page.

16. Clean up my blog!

I have started this process, eliminating my blog list, list of students' favorite words, and Shelfari widget.