Digital haiku #14
I'm feeling a little verklempt. The Vidfest haiku contest is over. Two weeks ago I decided it would be fun to post a digitally themed haiku at the Vidfest blog each day until the contest closed on March 11. I was right. It has been fun.

I riffed on themes ranging from cruel jpgs to semantic markup to email spam, and even managed to work my own URL into haiku form.

I was rigorous in following the prescribed haiku form of 5-7-5 syllables (unlike some I could mention, Robert!)

Mark took up the challenge of posting daily haiku. I think his Mom helped him, but I have no proof.

So now it's all in the hands of the judges, and I can't help thinking how very very cool it would be if someone (pick me! pick me!) from our New Media Slam team were in possession of a brand new Nintendo DS next weekend. You know, for inspiration while we take the shortest of all possible breaks from our 48 hours of sleep-deprived creativity.

As you read my final haiku, I hope you will recognize the sincerity behind the suckuppy tone of the words. Thank you Basho, and thank you Vidfest.

Haiku #14 03.11.05
i would be remiss
if i left this blog without
thanking you, Vidfest
- posted by Sandra Smith @ 11:12 PM 0 comments   

 
Two new (to me) thingies
If you scroll down to the bottom of this page (go ahead, I'll wait...), you'll see that there is some new decor below my inspirational quotation.

Site Meter
Props and snaps to Richard Eriksson of Urban Vancouver and Just a Gwai Lo blogging fame for pointing me in the direction of my new favourite shiny thing: Site Meter. It's the multi-coloured cube you were so transfixed by a moment ago.

A bit of background first. I found Richard's work through my regular perusal of The Standard. On my first visit to Just a Gwai Lo, I became unreasonably excited to see that he has a colophon. (Shut up, I'm sick that way.) I always look for them in print publications but rarely find them. It hadn't even occurred to me to have one on a website, but you can bet I'll be incorporating the idea in the next iterations of Hamster Salad and my other enterprises.

It was at the colophon page that I first noticed the coloured box, promptly clicked on it, and discovered a magical world of numbers.

What Site Meter does is track the traffic to and from your site. There are options to to switch out different aspects of the visual display and to have the visitor number displayed (we've all seen this before, and how sad is it when you come across a website that declares "You are Visitor Number 00000104 Since May, 10 1999"?).

Is that all?
Well, it's free and it's easy. Those are two good things. Hamster Salad is a Blogger blog; all I had to do was give Site Meter three pieces of information and the counter was automatically placed in my blog template.

Another nice thing is that it makes doing a quick check of your site stats painless. Click on the icon and you're taken to a summary page. I like this because it saves me from the tedious double-login/six-page-click process it takes to get my stats the traditional way.

Oooh. Potential downside: everybody else can see your stats too just by clicking on the same icon. Well, it's not a bad thing for Richard because he's got major traffic; advertisers love to see that kind of thing. My tiny numbers, however...

Moving right along
I mentioned there were two new thingies. The other is Creative Commons. If, during your journey to the bottom of this page, you clicked on either the icon or the text link you would have been taken to a document that informs you of the conditions under which re-distribution of my riveting words can be achieved.

There are different types of licenses available for different types of intellectual property and end uses. Again, it's free and it's easy. You know I like that. Moreover, it shows clearly that I recognize my rights as creator and copyright holder of my work.

Creative Commons is a nonprofit organization; you can support it by becoming a "Commoner," donating money, or buying something from their store.
- posted by Sandra Smith @ 8:38 PM 0 comments   

 
Digital haiku #13
Lucky number 13.

I started my digital haiku series with a play on Basho's famous "old pond" haiku. I thought I'd best give another nod to Basho Matsuo in hopes that some of his mastery of the form would rub off on me. And because I have a bit of a crush on him. I fluffle Basho.

Haiku #13 03.10.05
if he had the chance
i think Basho Matsuo
would have had a blog
- posted by Sandra Smith @ 9:12 AM 0 comments   

 
Sniffer

udo_sniffer
Originally uploaded by Hamster Salad.

I'm still playing around with the layout options Flickr gives when I want to blog a photo. For those of you keeping score at home, this is the "Medium, own line" option, and it is now Cats 3 Hamsters 0.

I would also like to point out the marvelous control Mr. Hamster Salad had of his depth of field in this photo.

- posted by Sandra Smith @ 12:53 PM 0 comments   

 
Digital haiku #12
It's down to the wire now. March 11 is the cut-off date for submissions to Vidfest's haiku contest.

Haiku #12 03.09.05
are your alt tags clear
and meaningful so blind folks
can see your website?
- posted by Sandra Smith @ 12:30 AM 0 comments   

 
BCIT New Media Students in Slam
Stay up for 48 hours straight trying to get a project finished on time. Overindulge in caffeine and sugar to create an illusion of alertness. Laugh too hard, work flat out, collapse in tears of exhaustion. Sounds like your typical student weekend, right? The BCIT New Media Crew participating in the 2nd annual New Media Slam event think so.

Teams of eight digital artists and technicians from across western Canada will be given an Inspiration Package at 4 p.m. on March 18. Hoping to prove their talent to the rest of the industry, they have until 4 p.m. a mere two days later to create, publish, and deliver a complete website, DVD, Mini-DV, CD-ROM, or other form of digital media.

How does BCIT’s crew view their chances? Mark Yuasa is confident, pointing out one way this team will be unique.

Our team, the sure winner, is planning to do things a little differently. With three bloggers in attendance, we thought it only logical to share our pain with the rest of you.

The bloggers Yuasa refers to are himself and Robert Scales of The Standard and Sandra Smith of Hamster Salad. Other team members are Erik Hermans, Mariska Richters, Boris Chow, Alan McLean, and Anthony Charles.

Completed projects can be viewed online after March 20, where visitors vote for the coveted “Audience Choice Award.” Check the New Media Slam wesbsite closer to the event weekend for details on how to vote.

This article was written for BCIT's The Link by Sandra Smith.
- posted by Sandra Smith @ 11:56 PM 0 comments   

 
Me & Udo
In the interests of trying out a different template for the photo/text layout in Flickr, I am forced to show you another photo of a cat.

Since I'm on the topic, my two cats are Ragdolls, bred at Briar Glen Farms in Sooke, BC. Inu is a blue point female and Udo is a blue mitted female. Both are around three years old.

Inu's name comes from the word "dog" in Japanese. Ragdolls have the reputation of being like puppycats. Inu follows me around, does tricks for treats, comes when she's called, etc. She's really smart.

Udo was named after a German cyclist (who also competed in Ironman Hawaii, the Holy Grail for long-distance triathletes) Udo Bolts. There are two reasons why she got a boy's name instead of what we originally planned (Hanako or "flower child" in Japanese). First, I love cycling, but my bike was already named Lance, so that was out. More importantly, every time we opened the door, she bolted outside and up the hill into the blackberry brambles where she would meow plaintively until retrieved. When we anglicized Udo Bolts' family name we got something quite descriptive of our new kitty's behaviour.

Udo (the cat) refuses to be trained to do tricks. I can't decide if that's because she's smarter or stupider than Inu.
- posted by Sandra Smith @ 9:50 PM 1 comments   

 
My first Flickr
I once read that the world wide web consists of 10% useful information, 65% pornography, and 25% candid photos of people's cats. In a first attempt to upload a photo to Hamster Salad from Flickr, I am contributing to at least one of those categories.

- posted by Sandra Smith @ 12:24 PM 0 comments   

 
Digital haiku #11
Haiku #11 03.08.05
digital haiku
a contradiction in terms?
new embraces old

Yeah, I know this one is kind of sappy. Mark Yuasa has a much more insightful take on the new/old thing.
- posted by Sandra Smith @ 8:34 AM 0 comments   

 
Haikewl
If you've been paying even the tiniest bit of attention to what I've been up to lately, you've noticed that haiku hove into view on Hamster Salad with some regularity. That's because haiku is the new Halo 2 and all the cool kids are doing it.

Ten days ago, I learned of Vidfest's haiku contest and, not seeing any rules prohibiting multiple submissions, challenged myself to submit one haiku per day until the contest ends on March 11. Today I was checking my site stats and discovered that someone(s) had navigated to my blog through a search using the words "women haiku." In the best of research traditions, I attempted to replicate the results. I didn't find Hamster Salad, but I did find Bicycling Magazine's haiku contest.

Me, Cycling, and Haiku: My Three Favourite Things
Oooh, thought I. I can do that and win a shiny new bike, too. Undeterred that my brilliant limerick* had failed to garner any notice in last year's humour contest, I submitted a cycling-themed haiku. (No, I'm not going to reveal the haiku I submitted to the Bicycling contest. You can just wait with everybody else until May 30 to marvel at my brilliance.)

Now, I should admit here that I am a bit of a ringer when it comes to the combination of haiku and cycling. A few years ago, a triathlon listserv that I was active on produced a steady stream of "tri-ku" until all the snow went away and we could get back outside on our bikes.

I couldn't find anything in the Bicycling haiku contest about multiple submissions, so tested the possibility by submitting two haiku on one day. Worked like a charm. I offer this information for your own edification because there is no way in the world I have enough time or interest to pop off a haiku a day until May 1. You, idle reader, can haiku your brains out and are welcome to it.

The Real Reason I Love Haiku
Just one more thing about me and haiku. I have a soft spot in my heart for this poetic form because it is what kept my husband in Japan with me when we needed to get him legitimately visa-ed up. We weren't married at the time; I had a full-fledged working visa, but he didn't qualify as my spouse/dependent. Just as his tourist visa was running out, we were introduced to a "school" which "taught" a "form" of "haiku" that the "owner" had "invented." Its twist was that instead of using the traditional seasonal reference, it used a cultural reference, and was called "Culture Hai-Q." Yes, it was pretty much as tacky as it sounds, but it did get Mr. Hamster Salad a cultural visa and that did the trick for us for a while.


* There was a young person named Smith
Whose cycling skills were a myth
Had a bit of a crash
And am real short of cash
Send a Cannondale Scalpel** forthwith.
Please.

** I can't remember if this is the bike I asked for; I was torn between a high-end mountain bike that I would immediately resell and a custom road frame from Seven Cycles that I would cherish for all eternity.
- posted by Sandra Smith @ 3:29 PM 0 comments   

 
Digital haiku #10
Haiku #10 03.07.05
multimedia
is such an obvious word
to start a haiku
- posted by Sandra Smith @ 8:35 AM 0 comments   

 
Digital haiku #9
Haiku #9 03.06.05
my neighbour's wireless
connection is wide open
but i'm a good girl

Check out the rest of the haiku at Vidfest.
- posted by Sandra Smith @ 12:33 AM 0 comments