Archive for the ‘Bruce Whealton’ Category

I wanted to highlight and describe the things I’ve done with Word Salad Online, over the years, especially most recently. In my previous posting here, I mention that I recently installed and setup the Community Builder software which is an extension for Joomla – the software that is used to create Word Salad Online. Joomla is a Content Management System, a dynamic, database-driven application. We contrast that with static websites. In a static website, which is how I did websites years ago, I’d have to recreate Word Salad with each issue that we publish. I’d have to create a new website, 4 times per year, because we publish 4 times per year. Sure, it might look very similar in design but each issue is an entirely new website creation and publication.

With Joomla, I created one website years ago. The content, the articles, the poems, the images, everything, is stored in a database (actually a reference to the image is stored in the database). In a static website, it’s easy to lose content, or lose track of where it is. It is rather cumbersome to have 4 different websites with images and other design elements for each publication that comes out – again, this happens 4 times per year. Joomla makes this so much easier. The poems, the images, the design elements, are kept in one place, in one location. The software organizes this complexity quite well. When we come out with a new edition of the magazine, we just change the menu to display the links to the new set of poems that are part of the new edition, as it is released.

The overall look and feel, of the site in Joomla is controlled by Templates. This helps to create a very consistent look to the entire site. In the next article/posting, I’ll talk about how the templates are created and then move on to talk about Community Builder software.

Share on Facebook

I just installed and setup Community Builder on Word Salad. This tool allows our members to connect with one another.  Community Builder is software, and it is an extension to the Joomla software that is used to create Word Salad Online. In a later posting, I will describe what all this means – what Joomla is and why I chose that.
I’d like to invite people to join the site and become a part of the community.   If you are a poet or writer, or if you just appreciate such things, you are invited to join.  If you have been published on Word Salad you may already have an account.  You can then create a profile, with a bio statement and then upload a photo, you can add, if appropriate, where you have been published, any blogs that you have, and etc..

To do this, go to http://WordSaladPoetryMagazine.com/ and click on Login from the Member menu, or if you haven’t joined yet, then please register. After you confirm your email, if you are registering, you can then login. At this point you can go to Member Profile Details – Go here to setup your profile.

You can then connect with other members, most of whom, are poets and many may have been published at some point in the past.
Thanks,
Bruce Whealton, co-editor, publisher, web designer/developer.

Share on Facebook

I should talk about an update to my blog also. I’ll do that in my next post.

The Angel of Death – Poetry by Jean Jones

I just published a pdf version of this collection with three recent additions by Jean Jones to his long running collection of poetry. Jean had asked me over a week ago to do this. Well, it’s finally available on Word Salad. You can find it by going here and then selecting it from the list. The heading to this paragraph has a link that goes right to the publication. It is in pdf format for printing or download. Perhaps there will be a second edition with more poems and maybe some kind of additional material.

A New Look for Word Salad

Perhaps we even need a new name for the site… not really. The site is named Word Salad. We have a quarterly poetry publication called Word Salad Poetry Magazine (we also have a quarterly of Haiku called Haiku Ramblings). You will also find a few back issues of Word Salad Poetry Magazine in our archives. Actually, we only have the poetry from the past issues available. Much of the rest of the content was duplicated with each edition. Word Salad as a website is larger now. We publish much more on the website. As noted in the above paragraph, we have numerous poetry collections available on the site.

In addition, I see this as becoming a community site with various resources. I have installed a wiki, similar to what you see on wikipedia.org. I called it Wordopedia for Word Salad’s wiki. We just articles to be written for this. I’ve installed “Community Builder” to make the site into a “Community” website. Users can enter a fuller profile and many more features will be available for interacting with others. More on this later.

I have tried to include many of the exciting features of today’s Social Web. As a web designer/developer professional working today, I have to take advantage of all these resources and it only seems natural to share what I am learning.
For social image file sharing (sharing pictures) I use flickr.com and use that to host images that are displayed on Word Salad. My home page, as it were, on flickr is here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/brucewhealton/ and my profile on flickr is here: http://www.flickr.com/people/brucewhealton/.
For social bookmarking I use del.icio.us and my page on delicious is here: http://del.icio.us/brucewhealton

Share on Facebook

Del.icio.us is a website for searching and sharing useful websites – the sites that you want to remember… the sites that interest you. Del.icio.us is a social bookmarking site. Your book marks are saved online so you can access them from anywhere on the web. In addition, as a social bookmarking site, you can share bookmarks, connect with others who do similar web searches and benefit from the shared wisdom of what is useful and interesting on the web. The link below will let you join my network. I also find this invaluable for anyone who does business on the web, because it is all about networking.

Just click on Add me to your network!

If you don’t already have a del.icio.us account you will be able to sign-up in minutes.

Share on Facebook

This is exciting news. Well, part of this announcement isn’t so exciting – the fact that this is a farewell performance by Ana. Port City Poet (Wilmington, NC) Ana Ribeiro is doing her farewell performance at the Bottega in Wilmington, NC. Ana has been running the Port City Poet’s Blog for some time now, and she is leaving for a scholarship, overseas. You can read more about this event on Ana’s blog here: http://poets.blogs.starnewsonline.com/11634/my-farewell-performances-this-week/… It’s always exciting to witness a good poet sharing her original poetry. I wasn’t sure I’d be able to make it with various possible job conflicts but as it turned out, I am able to come. So, Ana, being the nice person that she is, suggested that I read with her that night, as co-featured poet, as it were. So, indeed that is the plan. Ana will read from 9:05-9:25pm, with a short break and then I, Bruce Whealton, will read from 9:35 – 9:55pm. It’s always exciting for me to get down there and be part of the poetry scene. It is where I started as a poet and nurtured my poetry, or nurtured my inner poet, as it were (I think I’ve used that phrase, as it were, to many times in one paragraph ).

The above event is a feature of Jean Jones Presents, an offering on the second Thursday of each month. There will be a poetry workshop as well. Further details are at the link above.

Ana will host another poetry reading at the Brown Coat in Wilmington as well.

Maybe some of my readers are in the Wilmington, NC area… if not, I’ll have to share videos when they become available online.

Should be fun!

Share on Facebook

I’m not sure about the title for this one. I was reading this book called “TranceFormations” about the Hypnotic Patterning of Neuro-Linguistic Programming, produced by Richard Bandler and John Grinder, modeled after the skilled Milton Erickson – father of modern clinical hypnosis. They spoke of hypnotic patterning. This is about love and connection, also. Maybe the title should be “Hypnotic Realities,” instead.

Captivated

You are the river
that flows through me
like relaxation…
the place I go
for comfort…
the dream that inspires me
and reminds me
of those things I had forgotten
and everything
I see
hear
and feel
is some part
of you.
To be in your presence
is to be
in trance.

Share on Facebook

Watching you…

I look at you
and record image
after image
etched in my memory -
hundreds of stop-action
still-frame images -
so many aspects
of you…
so many expressions…
So much of me
bears your name
and image -
looking at me
is to see
what you do to me.
If you could look
into my mind
you’d find yourself
reflected.

Share on Facebook

I just discovered that four of my poems are in “The Horror Zine,” and which can be read at this link here. The poems are “Sensuous and Strong as the Serpent,” “Becoming,” “Shelter,” and “Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.” You can find the poems “Sensuous and Strong as the Serpent,” “Becoming,” and “Shelter,” also here in the collection, “Puncture Wounds” – a collection of poems about vampires and vampirism, by myself, Bruce Whealton and Scott Urban – available here. Some of these poems also appear in “Twice the Terror: The Horror Zine: Volume 2″ as well as “And Now the Nightmare Begins: The Horror Zine,” both available on amazon.com starting here.

Share on Facebook

My poem “An Infinite Beach” appears in the zine, Wild Goose Poetry Review, the spring 2010 issue, which is here: http://wildgoosepoetryreview.wordpress.com/2010/05/14/an-infinite-beach/

At the request of the editor, Scott Owens, I submitted a commentary. I think that is a unique idea to publish author commentaries with the poems, and a unique request – I mean I don’t usually get asked for a commentary when I am published.
I included this commentary on the poem: “I wrote this poem thinking about the things that really matter and that endure. A sense of the infinite, or of joy and love is sometimes noticed in certain moments that stand out in your mind… those moments when you stop, forget about everything else and realize that this, right now, is all that matters, all that will endure. Often we get so distracted and driven by various impulses. So, I thought of a time when that was different for me. I wrote about love. The beach is also very inspirational for me, when I want to write.”

Share on Facebook

Synchronicity

Like magic
a virtual world
of our creation
comes into being,
shared,
experienced
as only two like us
could imagine,
privately.
Your eyes
looking into mine…
you smile
and instantly
I feel it.

When we touch
we will enter into
touch completely…
I’ll come to you
shaking
craving the intoxication
of your lips
and then
calmed by the
synchronicity
of our naked touch
and of movement.

Share on Facebook