Wine and ... cheese?
Wait.. what? Not cheese?
What is Art
Doesn’t really matter. Cheese would have been nice but the pursuit was really a crowd with booths and a bunch of things going on. That’s what I found at the Wine and Art Festival in Capitola. No cheese.
Through a series of events I ended up spending some time at the Capitola street fair Saturday afternoon. Never been before.
I had no expectations but there was a fair amount of waiting. Maybe that’s the real nature of this fair? Waiting. Waiting at the mall for a free shuttle bus that didn’t come. I stood there 20 minutes before I checked the map and realized it was only .9 miles. So I walked. I saw the shuttle going up the hill just as I arrived at the event.
Waiting for people with wine glasses in hand to move just a little so you can get by.
Waiting 20 minutes for an iced coffee. The sandwiches were taking 45 minutes. Some people got grumpy but mostly they were really really patient.
Waiting for a friend that I knew would be there eventually but no actual plans were ever really made. Just hanging.
Waiting is good for the soul. Sitting with the knowledge that there is no hurry frees the brain… But I have to admit waiting for the shuttle made me anxious. Standing in a big line that doesn’t move for way too long and shows no sign of ever moving got to me a bit. I’m glad I left and started walking.
Waiting for coffee? The not knowing how long it will be is trying. You’ve paid and then … you … just wait. I paid. Can’t leave. Just wait. How long? Forever? Once I sat down and started writing while I was waiting I was good. Good to go.
And then I sat outside on a bench for a while. This was my view (I modified it in GIMP). I was having trouble getting inspiration beyond doodles so I decided to write individual words as they popped into my head. A word, glance up, gaze at people, a word… listen, a word.
Here they are… those words… make of them what you will…
hat mouse cap wine seawaves color wolf moon stagger age drunk short cold squint smirk smile flame hurry scamper draw bow horse capture clump endure secure hold dream stage wonder chew nervous decline contact plow shoulders jacket shawl perception chilled cross belief religion house slave shave aged auditory mellow “not fun” camera police security largess empty stagger slut tan sun posture confident walk slide garbage trolley leer creep sell spill incredibutt tights nose witch smile slurp exhale pierce defiant smile flannel dog slow stroll swing flap untanned wind cone desperate consumption fall waste glee comfort crowned claustrophobic cheer baby flexible mask fear
Is it poetry? Doubtful. Could I read it like poetry? You bet. Give it a try. Easier than the dictionary. Works backwards too.
D i g i t a l
c i t i z e n s h i p
Today in fourth grade tech we talked about digital citizenship.
I’m not always the perfect digital citizen. I can be a jokester. I can be silly. I’ll think it’s harmless. Is it? My favorite jokester moment was probably about 26 years ago while working at the now toast CatalogCity.com. One of my coworkers, “G”, sent out a mass e-mail to everyone* in an attempt to plan for a another coworkers surprise birthday party. *to everyone except that one person. Let’s call her “C”*
Nice. Party. Surprise for “C”. Cool.
I casually and quickly modified the e-mail header in the text so that it looked like the original email included “C” and did a solo reply to “G”… “why did you include “C” in the email?” That’s all I said.
It might have been two minutes before chaos ensued. People were running all over the place. Where’s “C”? Can we get in her email and delete it? What are we going to do? Oh no!! It’s ruined! I think it lasted 30 minutes. They weren’t happy with me when they figured it out.
So today I set up a google classroom assignment for fourth grade and their job was simply to define digital citizenship in the document. That was the original plan in it’s entirety. Honest. But I get bored as they work and as the teacher, I have full access to their documents in the assignment as they are working. So…
I go into their documents as they work and start adding random text blocks, “boop” appears on 18 screens in quick succession. You can hear it across the room as students exclaim “hey!” one after the other. Then I add smile faces, change the background colors, cover their work with a big rectangle, change their font color to the same as the background, flip their words upside down. Ah yes… such fun. BTW - I was successful in making a relatively simple assignment far more difficult. It really became an assignment in damage control…
Yes - I put it all back after. I’m not that mean. And they do know me pretty well. Eventually I could hear, “Oh, that’s just Mr. Swanson” Phoeey.
Yes, some of them did mention my disruptive actions in their definition. Well done, class!
Have a chaotic day… an unplanned day… a day of waiting and just watch the world. Write some random words down and decide if they mean anything.