Ice and snow descend on my yard

There is little in this winter world that is more destructive then an ice storm...and little that is more beautiful….the way the tree branches are coated with the glimmer of ice…each fragile branch surrounded and encased with the hard edges of ice. It is stark and amazingly beautiful.

But it is destructive even with all this beauty. There are already large limbs down in our yard, our old soft maples can't take the weight especially with wind.  I figure there will be more by sunrise tomorrow when the storm should have moved on into Ohio and moving toward points east.

I went out earlier to see the damage and, as usual, I ended up wandering around taking in the winter sights and sounds in a space I know so well…my own yard. The snow has nestled in the rows of the hay field, to the west, creating lines reminiscent of parallel cross-country trails. The birds have moved up to the yard from the back woods, at least they do so during the day, on days when the feeders are full. A pair of noisy blue jays lord over the groundfeeders driving smaller birds off so the bullies can grab the peanuts before the littler guys can get their fill. None of them seem to realize there is enough for all of them…I have more in the potting shed ready to refill the feeders when it is needed.

Some of the neighborhood wildlife has moved in closer to human habitation as well…the mangiest raccoon I have ever seen is living in our old garage. It comes out on warmer – a relative term if ever there was one – afternoons to sun itself near the door and lick its nether regions in the sun. For some strange reason it seems to like sitting in the electric watering bowl…which makes me glad that the state doesn’t check the sanitation of our serving area. LOL It will be enjoying our hospitality for a few more days until hubby is well enough to take care of it...it's a non-paying guest who has clearly worn-out it's welcome.

The feral cats stalk the bird feeders or try to chase the resident outdoor felines away from their Little Friskies when I put out their morning and evening bowls. One of the feral cats, an almost duplicate of one of my house cats, has taken to spending hours laying in my ground critter feeder…a small trough about two feet long with 10 inch sides. He seems to think that he has the advantage in catching birds from that location…I don’t think anyone has told him that sitting on the bird's food is not the best place to be if you want to spring out and surprise them. LOL

Oh well…more ice tonight and more snow…so tomorrow should bring more interesting sights and sounds in the yard.

p.s. The picture is not from my yard, rather it was taken in Bloomington somewhere near campus from the look of it. I swipped this from one of the Indianapolis television stations webpages, WTHR Channel 13.

Posted by prolurkr at 06:48 PM | TrackBack

Ok I'm back!

After six-months of nonexistent posting preceeded by five-months of very little posting, I declare myself back to blogging.

First, I want to thank readers who have contacted me offline to lend support and those who have sent good thoughts.  You will never know how much I appreciate each and everyone of you.  Things at home are pretty steadystate and may be so for awhile.

Second, I have been doing some writing with BROG and we will have a couple of papers in press shortly...how's that for positive visualizations.  LOL

And third but far from last, I am working on my quals paper after having had a required break to attend to personal business.  I'm sure more on this work will be forthcoming on prolurker.

So hello again from wintery Southern Indiana where the temperature has not been above freezing for over a week...but golly the snow looks pretty outside my window.

Over the next few weeks I will be making some changes to the site including upgrading MoveableType...let's hope that doesn't mean a redesign right now.

Posted by prolurkr at 10:45 AM | Comments (2) | TrackBack

New JCMC issue

A new issue of the JOURNAL OF COMPUTER-MEDIATED COMMUNICATION is available at:
http://jcmc.indiana.edu/vol12/issue2/

A Table of Contents is included below. This is a double issue that features a special theme section on "e-Science."

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Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication
Volume 12, Issue 2, January 2007
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Communication Privacy Management in Electronic Commerce
- Miriam J. Metzger

The Influences of Deception and Computer-Mediation on Dyadic Negotiations
- Gabriel Giordano, Jason S. Stoner, Robyn L. Brouer, and Joey F. George

Evaluative Feedback: Perspectives on Media Effects
- Stephanie Watts

Using Peer Feedback to Enhance the Quality of Student Online Postings: An Exploratory Study
- Peggy Ertmer, Jennifer C. Richardson, Brian Belland, Denise Camin, Patrick Connolly, Glen Coulthard, Jason Lei, and Christopher Mong

The Role of Status-Seeking in Online Communities: Giving the Gift of Experience
- Joseph Lampel and Ajay Bhalla

Greetings and Closings in Workplace Email
- Joan Waldvogel

Online News Credibility: An Examination of the Perceptions of Newspaper Journalists
- William Cassidy

"People Get Emotional About Their Money:" Performing Masculinity in a Financial Discussion Board
- Andrew Herrmann

RUOK? Blogging Communication Technologies During Crises
- Mike Thelwall and David Stuart

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Special Theme: e-Science: Transformations in the Conduct of Scholarship
Guest Editor, Nicholas W. Jankowski
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Exploring e-Science: An Introduction
- Nicholas W. Jankowski

Social Science and e-Science: Mapping Disciplinary Approaches
- Ralph Schroeder and Jenny Fry

Critical Accountability: Dilemmas for Interventionist Studies of e-Science
- Paul Wouters and Anne Beaulieu

Intellectual Property in the Context of e-Science
- Dan L. Burk

Connective Ethnography for Exploration of e-Science
- Christine Hine

What are Data? The Many Kinds of Data and Their Implications for Data Re-use
- Samuelle Carlson and Ben Anderson

From Shared Databases to Communities of Practice: A Taxonomy of Collaboratories
- Nathan Bos, Ann Zimmerman, Judith Olson, Jude Yew, Jason Yerkie, Erik Dahl, and Gary Olson

Shake, Rattle, and Roles: Lessons From Experimental Earthquake Engineering for Incorporating Remote Users in Large-Scale e-Science Experiments
- Jeremy P. Birnholtz and Daniel B. Horn

Situated Innovation of e-Social Science: Infrastructure, Collaboration, and Knowledge
- Bridgette Wessels and Max Craglia

Collaboration Structure, Communication Media, and Problems in Scientific Work Teams
- John P. Walsh and Nancy G. Maloney

Does the Internet Promote Collaboration and Productivity? Evidence from the Scientific Community in South Africa
- R. Sooryamoorthy and Wesley Shrum

Audience Counts and Reporting System: Establishing a Cyber-Infrastructure for Museum Educators
- Frank Pappas and Fred Volk

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This and all previous issues of the Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication are freely available at: http://jcmc.indiana.edu/Totally Academic

Posted by prolurkr at 07:42 AM | TrackBack