Blaming America First

I thought I'd contribute to the conversation.

In the least helpful way I could.

Length: 0:52

Click to view

unKeynote

Peter Van Djick seems like a nice and brilliant guy. But--and he admitted as much--he's not comfortable speaking in public, which made his Vloggercon keynote (text online here) one of my less favorite moments of the weekend.

So seizing upon the antiauthoritarian spirit of the conference I went back and wrote a speech I might have rather heard.

Peter had some interesting thoughts to offer about how values become embedded in technology, and of course I liked the Truffaut quotation he used to close. But I couldn't connect to it emotionally--and at times what I'm sure he meant as a compliment to the assembled crowd came off to me as offputting and elitist.

In retrospect Schlomo nailed it when he talked about the fear so many of us feel. Too much of Peter's speech I think was constrained by this fear.

Of course I wish I'd done a second take. Or made a different choice of composition. Or moved that stupid bag out of the frame. I wish I'd written a different speech, one that focused on the class and race and gender bull@#$% we'd like to wish away, I wonder still if I shouldn't have exploited all the videos and pics people have posted online, so that they'd sit through the whole video to see if I used their stuff.

But Peter had no such tricks to call on, so I'll just let this fly.

Plus I need to take my own advice and shut up about Vloggercon already, so I can get myself back to the real stuff.

Length: 10:53 (I hope never to ask this of you again.)

Click to view

tag: vloggercon

UPDATE (7/6): I have posted this video's transcript online.

Mood Swing

I've come to learn that two year olds are not as "terrible" as the cliche would suggest.

They're merely bipolar.

Length: 0:46

Click to view

[Have a couple of monologues I'm itching to record, but the ambient pollen conditions have absolutely shredded my vocal cords. One's a post-Vloggercon reflection, so I'm hoping it won't be dated by the time I can get the fershlugginer thing online.]

Strawberry

The joys of late spring.
Length: 0:28
Click to view

Photo: Riv

Story Time #3: How Do Dinosaurs Say Good Night?

Buy the book. Or the DVD.

Alma Gloeckler retired from the classroom after teaching my brother's first grade class, but she stayed on at the school as a one-to-one reading instructor. I was fortunate enough to spend time each week in Miss Gloeckler's supply closet of a room, but the environs never mattered to me so much as the access to new and interesting books.

My brother recently shared some reminiscences of Alma on the occasion of her 100th birthday. One reflection stood out for me as something I'd not been wholly conscious of.

When she read to us...she announced the author and illustrator with a reverence that we began to hold these professions in higher esteem than any other we'd previously considered.

As you'll see here, the boy's auditory recollection indicates we've been doing the same for him.

Moreover, my respect for authors, of children's literature in particular, led me to police myself a bit on this one along the intellectual property borderline.

With luck it won't diminish what is quite possibly the cutest footage I have ever captured of the boy. Although if you're an English reader you may need to go back and watch it a second time.

Length: 2:28

Click to view

Vlog

Can't wait to meet people next week.
I the meantime I'll do my best to annoy them.



Length: 2:05

Click to view

Quote: Ryanne Hodson

tag: vloggercon

Bock Church Photo, Part I

In my first foray into videoblogging family history, Christa's mom reminisces over a group photo taken in October 1954 at an anniversary celebration of Emanuel Lutheran Church in Bock, Minnesota.

Length: 2:24

Click to view