There is nothing like a child to remind one that life goes on. Even when you don't think it should. And most especially when you're not quite ready for it to. Trace's mama gave me her iPod touch. I initially refused because it felt too final a step. Like...it was an admission that she really is gone. Theoretically I know it, and certainly at the service last Wednesday I saw it, but that doesn't mean it's actually clicked. I spent a couple of hours at Mama Munns' house catching up, chatting and helping the ladies update their own various iPod songs/playlists. We then looked through some of Trace's numerous cds with photos of everything from gravestones, family members both past and present/young and old and sightseeing pictures. I discovered some new things about Trace I never knew - for instance, she took some damn good photos. There was a disc that had the most amazing pictures of a park and when I zeroed in on a few details I realised that they were actually of Mountfort Park. And never had I seen that place look so beautiful. Ever. Trace had a damn good eye! And then I remembered her telling someone that she was once asked if she would sell her pictures. I told Mama Munns that her stuff would make a fantastic book. Especially in light of the negative reputation Manurewa has :-)
Mama Munns said to take the iPod home and delete all of Trace's music and make my own mark. I dunno...it seemed weird. I couldn't even bring myself to touch it at first. It sat, for the first hour or two after I got home, untouched (kinda goes against the whole point of its name), on the dining room table. I wouldn't switch it on, I wouldn't even browse through her collection. It just sat there. My brother-in-law touched it and I'm afraid I nutted off at him and he quickly put it back. I somehow think I may have overreacted so I doubt he'll even look at it sideways let alone touch it again. Then Markhiem came over to visit and promptly plugged it in to re-charge - all without asking, I might add. The boy is worse than me with IT toys - no boundaries whatsoever and, once spotted, gotta turn it every which way but loose to figure out how it works. Once he saw that it had Safari (which is what they use at school) he wheedled, pleaded and begged until I agreed to configure the wi-fi settings. He had to work for it though - I made him figure out how to find the IP address, subnet mask, router and DNS details. Unfortunately, it was a trial and error process - and so I made him use Google to troubleshoot when we, scarily, somehow lost wifi access on my laptop and had to ruddy well re-configure that, too. That was NOT a good moment and I'd be thankful not to go through it again hah. I'm sure Markie'd be glad if he didn't have to hear every terribly inventive use of the 'F' word I ever stored in my repertoire :) He's stoked that the wireless is up and running on the iPod touch and no doubt he'll be back tomorrow playing with it again.
I've spent the last half hour going through her playlists and realised that music and books can tell you a lot about a person. They make you realise how well you knew them, and I think also confirm how little you really knew about them at one and the same time. A lot of her music was no surprise - the opera, the country, the musicals, the classical - but quite a bit of it was new to what I thought I knew of her - R&B, soul, 60s & 70s, Alicia Keys, Alvin & The Chipmunks, Richard Marx, Shakespeare's Sister...and a whole host of other stuff that was a delightful surprise. I imagine that the iPod will sit around for a while longer before I feel like adding anything to it. Hell, I may never add to it. I also imagine that Markie will be the only one to play with it for a while to come.
It must be time for me to get back on track with the point of this blog - it's been so long I may have forgotten ;) The format was something like this:
- NZ public libraries and the web 2.0 tools they're using
- anything of interest - and yes I do mean anything (books, music, people whatever)
- infodoodads Top 13 list (and when I run out of those I'll simply find some other list)
- book-related sites or blogs of interest (or even just what I'm reading atm)
- learning 2.1 tutorial (until I finish the list)
Peace, love & mungbeans, baby.
