Thanks

I am officially out of deep thoughts, and I need a little time for new ones to grow before Oxford hits me like a truck, but I have a few last thank you's to give.

1. Thank you to Karl. I can't even put into words what you've given me, but I know it's made me a better person and teacher.
2. Thank you to the other founding fathers of our technology team. I joined this team because I looked at your names and knew that I could trust you.
3. Thank you to my students for helping me take risks and for encouraging me unconditionally. I think the world of you.

This is beginning to sound like a senior yearbook page, so before I start saying things like, "You rock!" and "Never change," I'm going to sign off for a little while. I'll try to blog from Oxford a few times. Until then, you can find me jogging, playing frisbee, or attempting to take my cats on a walk wherever I can find a relatively dog-free park.

The Gorilla and I

It's a little like wrestling a gorilla.

You don't quit when you're tired; you quit when the gorilla is tired.

-Robert Strauss

Well, both the gorilla and I are exhausted, and we are pretty much wrestling to humor each other. Can somebody offer me something that will get me through the next two and a half weeks? Does anybody understand this metaphor? I think my post-modern technological poetry website has officially ruined my brain.

Digital Down to the Bones

I found a website dedicated to "technological poetry," a concept that seems almost paradoxical to me. What does technology have to do with the soul, I wonder? Here is the website's motto:

"This is a place for poetry and fiction born to pixels rather than the page--writing that's digital down to its bones. Art is the technology of the soul."

I just posted it to my 1st hour English 10 class because they're currently studying in poetry, and I'm eager to see how they'll react. If you have a few minutes and would like to play with this interactive poetry website, I'd love some feedback. Here's the address and the poems that I found particularly intriguing:
http://www.wordcircuits.com/gallery/index.html

Be sure to check out the links to the following three poems (you'll need a computer with sound):1. "Xylo" (Peter Howard)2. "Stained Word Window" (Deena Larsen)3. "The Dancing Rhinoceri of Bangladesh" (Millie Niss)