In regards to the grievous error I made yesterday by posting old bits to
FoRK I must first and foremost say "mea culpa". I humbly admit that I
deserved the flame from Dr. Thau and then some.. BUT still I must offer
this in my defense:
It is true that I forwarded humour without much commentary (thus violating
Commandent 2) HOWEVER I *did* pay the penalty by forwarding "new bits" within
24 hours (i.e. my posting in which I aptly and thoroughly answered Adams query
re: the number of Asian Indians in the U.S.). Thus, despite my making a typical
newbie mistake by forwarding the Haiku, I cannot be tagged a 97%-er.
I have now re-read the ten commandents of FoRKposting from the FAQ and in the
future will give meaningful subject lines to my posts, reference where bits
come from, and I shall always offer my insightful wit on all that I post.
I may make a mistake once, but never twice.
And, just for the record, I have yet to be overly insulted by any of the
postings to FoRK. Yes, this may be a male dominated group riddled with too
much testerone but it does not mean that females can not lurk amongst you.
I can take the heat of any flaming that comes my way and I will also
flame back if I need to. Rohit has thrown down the gauntlet and I accept his
challenge: I shall "take on the Master Beta Males on their terms"! I may be a
librarian, but timid and mild-mannered I am not. I value the quest for
information above all else -- hence the reason I for my chosen profession and
also my reason for joining FoRK in the first place. Academic libraries
(actually all libraries) must grapple with changing technology constantly
and far too many librarians are complacent about keeping up-to-date with these
changes. I am part of the newer wave of librarians... the gen-X librarians
who are savvy with technology and want to keep learning so that they can
ensure that libraries are relevant in the future. I currently teach HTML
workshops on our campus, but I know that the day when I should be teaching XML
workshops is not far off... when that time comes I want to be prepared.
I have found the answer to a second question that Adam sent to me and I will
post it tomorrow (or when time permits).... Oh, and for clarification, when I
referred simply to The Dead in my music recommendations I was not referring to
Garcia but rather to The Dead Can Dance...
I close with an excerpt from one of the many books I am currently reading. This
excerpt discusses flaming and the female response to flaming. It is relevant
given the recent discussion on the demographics of FoRK:
"Dorothy Ellen Wilcox (M.Ed.) has done a lot of research on flaming and
believes that flaming is often intended to intimidate girls and women into
silence. In response, women have developed strategies for staying included,
such as "passive lurking" (becoming invisible by staying silent), changing
their names to androngynous or male aliases, becoming competent flamers
themselves, and even beginning their own electronic bulletin boards in an
attempt to bring gender equity to the Internet"
Source: _Growing Up Digital: The Rise of the Net Generation_ by Don Tapscott
page 180. (ISBN:0-07-063361-4)
Tapscott's book provides an interesting profile of what is now being coined by
some as the "Net Generation" (me? I am gen-X and proud of it). Tapscott
corresponded with and/or interviewed over 300 individuals before he wrote this
volume. A worthwhile read in my estimation.
One more closing thought: I am glad to see that there are other fans of
Canadian music on this list -- especially since this proves that Tim's rule
which states "Canadian culture has given nothing to the world" is WRONG!!!!
Canadian culture is alive and well, it is just that most Americans are too
ethnocentric to be aware of what is going on north of the 54th parallel.
Lisa, your recommendation of the Arrogant Worms is most worthwhile! Once again
they are a band from my hometown of Kingston ON and I have seen them perform
several times...I have followed their rise from buskers on the street up
to their current cult-like status on the Cdn. music scene.
Janie (just call me Diva)
*******************************************************
Janie L. Wilkins
Reference/ILL Librarian
Hobart and Wm. Smith Colleges
Geneva, NY 14456
"A great many people think they are thinking when they are
merely rearranging their prejudices" -- William James