My favorite poem

Today's prompt from NaBloPoMo is: What is your favorite poem?

That is a very difficult question to answer. I have several poems that I hold dear. Two are by Edgar Allan Poe:

The Bells
And
The Raven

Also, Rainer Maria Rilke's Corpse Washing

But I stumbled on one a few years ago I stumbled on a poem by C. David Hay, called "The Cemetery" It's not available online. Since I don't want to violate copyright, I'll just give you a few lines of this sixteen line poem:

Cold are the whispering winds that blow
Past chiseled marble--row on row.
Silent specters aglow in the night
Like sentries frozen in after light
Guarding the bones of those beneath--
Dust and ash be their bequeath.

Yes, I admit it. I do like a bit of the macabre in my poetry.

What did I want to be when I grew up?

That's the prompt for today's NaBloPoMo.

At first I couldn't remember. But then I recalled all those floor plans I drew on graph paper. From about fifth grade through high school. I think I wanted to be an architect or an interior designer. Somehow in high school I forgot all about that. I got interested in science and technology and decided that I wanted to be an engineer. All the while, I was reading history books for fun.

So, what did I graduate with a degree in? History! Highly employable. That's why I went to graduate school. I majored in Information Studies (which was a cross between Librarianship and Computers). I worked in libraries for a while doing computers. I soon figured out that doing computers paid more than being a librarian. Sometimes, I miss the librarian stuff. Much less stress.

Give me another chance?

I haven't posted to my blog since May 1st! There's a lot I could say in my defense. Work and personal life have been extremely stressful. And, considering the nature of my work and the nature of the personal life stress, I couldn't just openly blog about those situations.

However, NaBloPoMo has inspired me. I get an email from them at the end of each month, challenging me to get back into blogging in the upcoming month. They even give you daily prompts to help get you going.

In June, I'm spending a week on Star Island again. This time I'm going to Star Arts Week, and I plan on participating in the writing workshop. I'm also going to take my camera, but I decided that I'd benefit more by focusing on my writing.

So, I'm really going to try to write in my blog in June. Probably not every day like NaBloPoMo wants me to, but definitely a few times every week. Crossing my fingers that I can do this.

Apple shutting down Lala

I really like Lala. Not only has it allowed me to post links to songs on my blog, but it's been the best service to listen to particular songs online for free.

If Apple is looking at a way to replace Lala's functionality on the Internet, I wish they would have figured that out before announcing that it will be shutting down Lala as of May 31st

To bid Lala a proper goodbye, maybe I'll post a song of the day until they close. It looks like Apple has done away with the embed feature (more bummer). But here's...

Lady Gaga's Poker Face

Refreshing the mind

While it's been quite exhausting, I have been really enjoying myself this week trudging into Boston and Cambridge for some professional conferences this week. On Tuesday and Wednesday I attended Secure World. Today and tomorrow I'm at a conference on spam on MIT's Cambridge campus.

Not much at either conference has been earth shattering. I've picked up a few tidbits hear and there. Some of the presentations sparked some ideas on how I could do things different back at the office. And today, I got to walk in the sunshine during a lunch break.

I've been heavily involved in email conversations on my Blackberry the entire time that I've been out of the office. And, I've felt bad about missing some major events that went on acceptably without me.

On the whole though, I think it's been really good for me to get out of the office to explore how others are doing my job at other organizations. I have also learned that we're doing more of the right things than almost anyone else out there. Though, there's still a lot more I think we could be doing.

I highly recommend that all professionals get out of their offices and meet up with others in their field a few times a year. Both you and your organizations will be the better for it.