doesn't mean lonely, necessarily. The blog was silent, I hardly spoke to anyone in the blogosphere. In fact I kept to myself most of the time, but as D.H. Lawrence wrote in "Corot":

Ah listen, for Silence is not lonely:
Imitate the magnificent trees
That speak no word of their rapture, but only
Breathe largely the luminous breeze.

*blissful sigh*

Way back, like in December, Former OCCA director now Director of GrassRoots.com and hell of a fun lady, Angela Stuber tagged me to list 5 little known facts. I ignored it, chuckled that she picked me (like I got a friend on the internet), and then read the personal factoids like a snorting voyeur in the red district. Credit to Angela, she never hounded me on dropping the ball. I tend to ignore these internet games that get sent around like goofy surveys, .... It equates to the technoversion of the chain letter.

However, last May TWO buddies, Jim of Vitruvious fame and fantabulous artchick/DJ Ginley, smacked me with the meme and now I am to list TEN little known facts of myself. I have been corralled and the Andromeda Strain is growing.

So to stop the nagging, I relent and list what is left of my private neurosis for all to mock.

1. I am a gregarious loner. Love to be social, be around people, go to events. But I equally or even more so like to be alone (such a pleasure after 9 years of cohabitation/marriage.)
2. I have been learning to draw, thanks to the Tremont Pretentious Artists at the Literary Cafe on Friday nights(tho not so much the last couple of months). The improvement has been from middle-school Simpson cartoons to shading and depth and sketches that look like the subject. Thanks to Tim Herron and Brian Pierce for the informal lessons, tips, and encouragement.
3. I had three years of Kung-Fu training during the 70's. First fight I got into with it, had my ass kicked. Thanks Jerome Mackey, muthaf'er.
4. Played the trumpet for four years during the impressionable age. Unfortunately, instead of Miles Davis, I was impressed with Snorky of the Banana Splits. Traded it in for a harmonica.
5. I'm fascinated by Gay culture. I'm very straight, but the kind of things our gay neighbors face remind me of much I faced as a jew growing up. Gays cross all socio-economic lines, races, religions, you name it. Just like jews (except for the religion part). And despite "gaydar", no-one can really tell from looking, just like no-one can tell who's jewish. (William Shatner? Really?) I've had my fights over the jewish thing (see number 3), and I know that many of my gay friends had to defend themselves more than once. Go watch the Gregory Peck film, "Gentleman's Agreement."
6. During the entire 5 years I lived in Texas right after college, I didn't get laid. Except for the very last night, New Years Eve. Hung over and driving a U-Haul, I was grinning very widely.
7. I never failed a class in college and at Duke that was saying something. I did, however, get a D- in biomechanics.
8. In a middle school performance of "Fiddler on the Roof," my voice cracked during my solo song as Perchik, the end of a promising acting career.
9. In 7th grade, I was hit by a car on the way to a soccer game. I suffered a scrapped up face, black eye, and a bruised kidney. A week later another kid was hit by a car on the way to football practice and died. The school district instituted shuttle buses for athletes to get around to the various fields.
10. I'm a lingual chameleon. I fall into whatever accent of whomever I'm speaking to for more than an hour.

And just as bonus cuz I took so long to post: I didn't read, listen, write, or pay any attention to poetry from 1978 to 1994.

I'm not tagging anybody else for this in an attempt to stop the madness. I guess that means my little boys are going to dry up and fall off.

I'm back I'm b.. you get the idea.

Months of trying to hack out why those errors came up after migrating to my new host finally resulted in answers and solutions and in WITB back on line.

So those of you emailed, wanting to know if I was dead...
no, only my software, database skills.

Those that thot I was permanently leaving the NEOblogosphere...
no, there was a good chance of leaving NEO for mystic points east
and tho the poetic parts of my writing have taken precedent, I will blog til the above rumor is true.

I've got lots of things I wanted to point out (even eco-political crap again), neat quotes from my reading, and of course poetry readings to pimp, So stay tuned for some content for a change.

Damn, it feels good to post again.
.....now for that pesky TwiFi site....

My reading at Mac's Backs came off great, despite the growing global conspiracy against Steven B coolness. (You can see what Steven B Smith has had to endure in Morocco here.) For this Steven B Goldberg, it manifested by responding to appointments I had made yesterday.

I scheduled a car check out for this morning, but when I wanted to run to Coventry for burger and brew before the reading, my transmission went out and I had to get a tow out work's parking lot. I managed to bum a ride to Cleveland Heights from Adam Harvey and just made it to the reading.

Since I didn't get my burgers (and dammit the brews neither!), I ran to get a slice of pizza during the break. Wouldn't cha know, I lost a filling wolfing that down. Did I mention that I also scheduled a dentist appointment that day? A haircut appointment, I'd be bald. I don't even want to think of a proctology exam.

Decided to pull a Lang and take a picture to remember one of these rare times I get to feature read. Tere Maher was magnificent and Carmen Tracey threw out images that shook up that old bookstore. Glad I didn't have follow either one.

Thanks to everybody that came out to hear me read. thanks to Adam the driver, Russ Vidrick, Charlotte Mann, Alma Chopra, Katy Daley, Miles Budimir, Joseph Makkos, Marsha Sweet, Wendy Shaffer, and George Bilgere.

I apologize if you were standing in the back or if missed you. Know that I appreciate your coming out as well. A special thank you to Suzanne DeGaetano for giving me this opportunity to read where so many great poets have been before.

Fresh from the Jawbone buzz in Kent, I am thinking about the where that the need to write something as thankless as poems comes from.

Federicio Garcia Lorca smacked me in the head with this:

Angel and muse come from without. The angel gives light, the muse gives forms... golden bread or folds of the tunic; the poet recieves rules in his shrubbery of laurels. Yet the daemon has to be wakened in the ultimate recesses of the blood. It means to reject the angel and kick out the muse. To shed all awe of the fragrence of violets which eighteenth-century poetry exhales, and all awe of the great telescope in whose lenses the muse falls asleep, sick of limits. The true struggle is with the duende, the daemon.

Thankless,Ineffective, Ignored, but the Spanish Fascists still had Lorca executed. What of Vaclev Havel of the Czech Republic? I wonder what it is that power-mongers are afraid of, the poets. the poems, or the duende?

Keep the Internet Free!

Remember how warm you tried to get, cozing up with your sweetheart in February? Remember how you wanted to get in the mood by listening to me verbositize at Mac's Backs? Remember that you looked out your window to see the weather, but culdn't cuz everything was WHITE!

Well, Me, Carmen Tracey, and Terre Maher are rescheduled to read at Mac's Wednesday May 9 at 7:00. I hope to have some new stuff and refined old ready, but go to get woken up by Carmen. That little lady has much soul.

Also, I will still be open for some sympathy from young neo-hippy girls that hang around Coventry in a timewarp. Please don't touch the beret, unless you mean it.

See ya there. Mac's Backs is at 1820 Coventry Rd in Cleveland Hghts.

If you have been going to all the National Poetry Month events around the region, you may be thinking that you survived. Even tho the Jawbone in Kent is this weekend, sort of bleeding into the May flower power, you can take a breath and congratulate yourself.

However, if you find yourself waking in the middle of the night with the sweats and shouting "If I contradict myself, so be it. For I am large!",or that weekly report has an iambic cadence, or you wonder if you can make a sestina out of the names of the seven dwarfs, if only a tree fell on Doc, then you may have Post National Poetry Month Trauma Syndrome (PNPMTS)

Experts have advised after two Rolling Rocks, a shot of Old Poltrero, and a Jameson's neat, that the best way to treat PNPMTS (pronounced "pinpmets") to gradually wean away from the obsession with progressively less uproarous, sensibility snapping, juice roiling spoken words.

Fortunately, Don Ianonne and Michael Ceraolo, the features for this month's Literary Cafe Poetry academy and donut stand Nite of a thousand twitches (Thurs May 10 at 9:30pm) is exactly what the doctor prescribes.

Michael Ceraolo is a civil servant and poet who says he's trying to overcome a middle-class upbringing. He has had over 600 poems published in nearly a hundred journals, such as Impetus, Green Fuse, San Fernando Poetry Journal, and Tamafyhr Mountain Poetry. He has published the book, Cleveland Haiku, with Green Panda Press, and his most recent book is Euclid Creek, which traces the origins of Euclid Creek and proceeds to illuminate hundreds of years of Northeast Ohio history as it meanders like the flow of water through people, places and events. Euclid Creek is with Deep Cleveland Press. [kudos to Marcus Bales for this bio and Wendy Shaffer for the photo.]

Don Iannone is a poet living in Cleveland, Ohio. By day, Don runs a strategic planning and organization development consulting company, and by night he writes poetry.

Don grew up in Eastern Ohio in the 1950s and 1960s. His early years have had a deep influence on his poetry. Like the Pulitzer Prize winning poet James A. Wright, Don comes from Martins Ferry and he writes often about his hometown. While he has written poetry throughout his life, he has seriously dedicated himself to poetry writing only over the past four years.

Overall, Don’s poetry is shaped by three underlying influences: his spiritual journey and the deeper questions it raises; the beauty and inspiration found in all aspects of nature; and the power and meaning of everyday life. Don believes all of us have a tendency to overlook the importance of everyday life. Too often, we miss the beauty, inspiration and meaning found in everyday life.

Don is the author of two published poetry books. Stilling the Waters was published in 2005 by Medicine Wheel Publishing, and Walks in Life’s Sacred Garden, which will be released in May 2007 by BookSurge. A number of his poems also have been published in several online poetry journals.

Luxurious words by two masters of the pen, crafted and buffed into velvety softness that will lull that trauma right out of existence. And if that doen't work, Andy will have a special Buy Two, Get Two beer promotion.

So get treatment Thursday, May 10 at 9:30pm. The Literary Cafe is at 1031 Literary Road in historestaurantical Tremont neighborhood. Clicky for mappy, Happy.

Couple days ago, I ranted about the lack of open source requirements in the Cleveland Wifi RFP. I tried to explain to CTO Melodie Mayberry-Stewart in a conference call when she first presented to Cleveland Digital Vision. I don't think I did a good job, considering the end result. It is even more complicated when I also speak of Open Source Hardware.

Fortunately, Make Magazine's blog has a good post that explains and gives examples. Below I chop up much of their effort to give an outline.

There are a few definitions, some come from "open source software" which is usually considered software's - "source code under a license (or arrangement such as the public domain) that permits users to study, change, and improve the software, and to redistribute it in modified or unmodified form"

So how does this translate to hardware?

Electronic hardware can be divided up into layers, each of which has different document types and licensing concerns.

• Hardware (Mechanical) diagrams
  Dimensions for enclosures, mechanical subsystems, etc. For 2d models, preferred document type is vector graphics file, with dimension prints, DXF or AI, etc.
• Schematics & Circuit diagrams
  Symbolic diagrams of electronic circuitry, includes parts list (sometimes inclusively). Often paired with matching layout diagram. Preferred document type is any sort of image (PDF, BMP, GIF, PNG, etc)
• Parts list
  What parts are used, where to get them, part numbers, etc.
• Layout diagrams
  Diagrams of the physical layout of electronic circuitry including the placement of parts, the PCB copper prints and a drill file. This is often paired with a schematic. Preferred distribution is Gerber RS274x and Excellon (for drills).
• Core/Firmware
  The source code for that runs on a microcontroller/microprocessor chip. In some cases, the code may be the design of the chip hardware itself (in VHDL). Preferred distribution: text file with source code in it, as well as compiled 'binary' for the chip.

• Software/API
  The source code that communicates or is used with the electronics from a computer.

  Each level can be open sourced, but the exact nature of what it means to open it varies. In practice, not every layer is fully open. Often only a subset of the layers are released, documented or open source.

Click on to the actual post for the examples, sample projects and a good argument for open source that is applicable to both software and hardware.

One of the perk of being on the Cleveland Digital Vision Board is that I get at the moment notice of things like when the Cleveland Citywide Wifi RFP comes out. I got the heads up and it was released last Friday. I spent Saturday nite reviewing it and sent these comments to significant people in the sector, here and in my network nationally.

Skim the 200 page RFP here to get some context of what I wrote. I didn't edit for the blog and I apologize for not posting it sooner.

I don't want to appear cynical, but.....

my copy of the RFP has a number of bad typos such as the table of contents
had every paragraph and subparagraph listed to be on page 3 yet the table
itself was 4 pages long. electriCity vs electricity What message is that
putting out?

Also I don't see any language about open source. There is the mention of
open "architecture" and specifically 802.11b/g, but nothing about open
source software or hardware. Industry standards is NOT open source standard.
The part "No client software that is specific to the Network Operator or
Service Provider (s) shall be required on PCs, laptops, or other mobile
devices in order to use the Network" doen't really cut it either.

This seems to be crafted to be to the big guys with large marketing
departments, requirements for economic impact reports that would probably
be farmed out to CSU or Case, and basically setting up or interfacing with a
lot of the Cities internal computer systems to get to work orders, report
submissions, etc. That could be a major job in of itself.

The computer equipment provider seems to be designed to add to intel
increased sales.

Why was so much written about the city's assets of optical fiber when it is
NOT available for this project? It is probably the biggest advantage the
city has in actually getting this done and it can't be used! But then the
winner can use HIS fiber to backhaul, if he/she wants.

Technically: "In Addition, the Network's signal level should be at or
above -65 dBm as measured with a ) dBi antenna.]"
It is important to know what kind of gain the reciever antenna is as well as
the measured bandwidth of the rf power (spectrum analyzer) meter. The meter
must be NIST traceably calibrated to maintain an equal playing field. Might
also have been better to explicitely state compliance to FCC part 15.

The "WiFi certified" label is passe.

The proposed network provides support for
And finally what the hell is a "walled garden"? "drinking fountain
capability"?

And just so that I don't appear snarky, here is what I like about this RFP:

Network is available for Fair and Equal Access.
Network is Open to Multiple Service .
The network has No Blocking of Content or Ports for Non-City Services.

Roaming, if it can be implemented would be major cool. RTA bus rides with
video conferencing would be slick. But again this is big boy territory.

I'm not too happy about 10 year commitments in such a fast moving industry,
especially without specific mechanisms to enforce or switch providers
midstream. However, I do like that they are looking forward in expecting
100 times more bandwidth neccesity in ten years. It hope it will be enough.

Did I read right? "best-effort minimum for 1 Mbps SYMMETRIC data
transmission" Am I in America?

And then of course, I LOVE "The proposal describes how the network will
interact with existing WLAN users." ie us grassroot CWN implementers. Yay,
we have not been forgotten.

If you got opinions on the RFP or on my take, go ahead and comment.

Now that I've sold out my soul to regain my place in the Dilbert Cubical Dungeon, I now have something of a mythical condition.

I have some disposible income.

Whereas, in the former, former life I horded it to take care of suburban dreams and disaster hedging. Massed it up to accumulate practable toys of the over achiever. I was a good republican.

This time around I did what I advocated for years, but never indulged cuz I had not the resources. I bought art and I bought local art and I bought local art from a gallery and I bought local art from a local gallery and I bought local art from a local gallery cuz I just liked it and not cuz it was from a name or that I would be cool to buy it.

I bought this Peter Leon from out of the SB Smith collection that is being administered by Brandt Gallery.

And yes it is hanging in my bathroom cuz that is where I like it.