Saturday, April 21, 2012
Sunday, February 12, 2012
Mikis Theodorakis-Το σφαγείο-Θα σημάνουν οι καμπάνες(live)
Tuesday, January 3, 2012
#blog12daysxmas Day 11 Who is Hecuba and what is she to me?
This is about Web 2.0 although it may not appear so at first. There has been a bit of discussion in the last day or so about how one decides on Twitter handles and such like. @shewgirl did a blogpost on it and @bonitoclub forwarded a post he had done a while ago about the historical origins of his name. I commented on this and made an aside about the banality of my Twitter name. I thought it was so obvious! But apparently not! I thought there were lots of clues in this blog and even in my current Twitter avatar. Maybe my #secretsanta this year knew?
Like @shewgirl my name has its origins back in 2007 when we were all doing the 23things project in Victoria. To this day I don't understand why anonymity was required but it was and like @shewgirl I spent ages tossing around trying to find a Google identity so that I could set up the required blog. It was just too hard! Then suddenly like a flash it hit me! I was going to be Polyxena and my blog was going to be Hecuba's Story.
To this day, I am not really sure why I came up with those two names. I do know that they were called after my cats, Polyxena and her daughter Hecuba. But why I came up with them in that order or at all is a mystery. I think one of the reasons was some wise advice given to me a few years earlier by an online friend. I was mourning the death of my much adored cat, Messalina, who had been there for me throughout my cancer treatment - and lots of other things. My friend from the BreastCancerList told me that one thing he had done to celebrate his cats who had died was to call new email addresses etc after them so that he remembered and celebrated them every time he used the account.
Once I had my Google identity as Polyxena, I started using it elsewhere and when I started up my Twitter account later on, well of course I was going to try for that moniker and it was available. So that is where Polyxena comes from. My white Xena's name and her ginger girl, Hecuba, form most of my online identity. And where did the feline Polyxena's name come from? Well, as some of you know that was a sheer mistake :)
The Story of Polyxena on Storybird
Monday, January 2, 2012
#blog12daysxmas Day 10 Flickr challenges
The year has started off for me with two Flickr photographic challenges: #2012PAD and #fp2012 to use their Twitter monikers. Last year I completed the #2011PAD (PAD equals Photo A Day) with 365 photos and really enjoyed doing it. The photos could be of anything and I certainly had a range of topics at the end.
It certainly honed up my Flickr skills and it also gave me a whole new Web 2.0 community to be part of. There were only three of us initially from Melbourne with the rest of the 50 from the UK mainly (if not entirely). So it was great to get to know this community through their photos. Being in the southern hemisphere where the seasons were the opposite made for some interesting comparative photos too.
At the end I took the opportunity to make a Pummelvision video of the photos and posted about that experience here the other day. It was fun to see quite a few of my Twitter friends reflecting on similar 2011 projects and in some cases to see the resulting video. I really enjoyed the whole process and am so glad that I have done the video and have it as a memory of the highs and lows of 2011. Thanks @sarahgb for setting up and administering the group!!
In 2012, I am taking part in two such projects. #2012PAD is on Flickr and essentially the same as #2011PAD and a continuation though a new beginning for those of us who did it last year. That started yesterday and my photo above is 366/2 for today. This year I have resolved to number them from the start very clearly so that I won't be flapping around in the last few days doing a comparison of what's in my set and what's in the group. Well, I suppose I might still be doing that but it will be a lot easier.
The #fp2012 project is slightly different but a variation as the photographs are themed rather than just PADs. This project, also a Flickr group, was dreamed up by @sarahgb and @csmramsden. #fp2012 stands for Friday Photos 2012 and the idea is that we will have 52 themes over the year and can post up to three photos a week with the Friday of each week being the deadline. The theme for this week is Beginnings (not surprisingly for the first one and for the beginning of a new year) and I just posted my first one today: 52/1/1. Again I am determined to get the numbering right from the start! Opportunistically, I used the same photo that I used for my PAD today. I hope to do the two projects in tandem though it remains to be seen whether I will always do that.
So, if you are looking for a 2012 challenge and want to hone up on your Flickr, do a bit of photography or meet a new community, why don't you come on over to Flickr and join up for either or both of the groups? I have given you the links above so how easy is that? We have also signed up the City of Boroondara Library Service for the #fp2012 challenge and will be interested to see how it works with a library. It would be great if some of you got your libraries on board too.
So happy Flickring in 2012! I am sure that I will be talking more about these projects as the year progresses and certainly at year's end.
