Recently I have started to create a website called Whealton Family Tree, which I’ll describe further in a different posting or you can visit the Whealton Family Tree site here.

An interesting coincidence, as I write this, was to receive a copy of a poetry anthology called “Simple Vows.” It was a few years back when this came out.  I had moved around a bit and had not received a copy of this publication.  It was significant because my poem “Genealogy” was published in the anthology.  This was significant to find my poem in an anthology with great poets, including poets that are well known from high school and college poetry anthologies… poets like Ezra Pound and Shelby Stephenson.

Genealogy

Self history in quest of
self knowledge brought me
today
to this
church cemetery.

A certain history
made visible to me today.
I saw my last name - Whealton -
etched on so many stones…
markers of my heritage…
written here
and here and on a stone next to this one,
and over there, and there and there and
there…

Why were my ancestors put into the ground,
like plants?
From dust thou art -
it says in the bible,
and to dust one must return…
but there is no such thing as death.

I see my ancestors
immortalized on tombstones
with the marker Whealton - the name I share.
Will I live on as well, through
my writing?  I wonder.

This road I travled…
this land I’ve seen
- as I sought to discover this place-
seems too quiet - too deserted…
a town of ghosts, but here
my ghosts tell me nothing.

I imagine I’ve found a ghost town.
Up front, within the church that my
great-great grandfather built
I observe
signs -  pictures - of recent visitations.
Names, and faces in picture albums
found inside the doorway…
descendants of those names
on the stones.

What did I come to find?
A place holding clues to my heritage?
or something more,
something I could touch
and see…
a certain hard stone’s proof?
(proof of what?)
Stones that need for nothing,
not sun or food,
nor water
to hold their forms
and their names.

All I found was dust - along
the roads and among the stone markers.

By Bruce M Whealton, Jr.

This may seem like an oxymoron, creative web development.  When you think of Web Design, perhaps one might think of that as allowing for creativity but not web development?  I guess this doesn’t make sense unless one understands the differences between the two terms.

Web Design is often used to refer to the presentation of a website.  This includes the aesthetics of a website as well as, or including, the  layout, look and feel of a website.  A Web Designer may be interested in colors, color combinations, images and other ideas related to how the website is presented.  Web Development, on the other hand, refers to more technical matters.  It involves connecting with databases, such as presenting dynamic content from a database.  It also involves programming, or coding - writing software applications that run on the server or in the browser.  On my professional Blog, related to my business, I discuss these matters in more depth.  You can read that blog by going to: http://FutureWaveDesigns.com/wordpress/ In addition, you are invited to read more on another website of mine that uses a Content Management System called Joomla.  This site is also related to my Web Design/Development Business and can be reached here at:  http://FutureWaveDesigns.com/WebDevelopment/ and for further information visit my business website, for Future Wave Designs at: http://FutureWaveDesigns.com

I would submit that while many tasks related to Web Development are technical and often use the left, logical side of the brain, I am able to express myself creatively when I develop websites.  Some parts of the process draw upon my left, logical brain and some parts of the process draw upon the right side of the brain, which is reserved for creativity and less structured thinking.  In order to create something using these web technologies, I first must envision how it can work, and how I can present my ideas.

Let’s take my recent project where I am publishing the poetry collection, by Jean Jones, entitled “The Birds of Djakarta.”  I had in mind that a rich internet application, which allowed for greater interaction of the person coming to the website, that I could find a way to do something more with regard to publishing this book of poetry on the web.  I decided to use Adobe Flex Builder because it provides a variety of components and containers for presenting content, as well as rich user interface components.  This publication can be found at: http://FutureWaveDesigns.com/BirdsOfDjakarta/ and at: http://wsmagazine.net/BirdsOfDjakarta/

I have discovered that some developers have created different ways of presenting a Book on the web using Flex.  In one example, the Flex Book simulates actually turning the pages of a book.  While the code for that is free and available to use, I haven’t yet become fully aquainted with the software to be able to use that code in a design like this.  So, there are other opportunities to explore.

I am also a poet, so look for some of my poems to appear on the web using these technologies.  I enjoy opportunities that allow me to express my creativity - that part of me that nurtures the poet in me - and my technical skills.

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