"Flakes of info and fun!"

That's how I'd try, in my corny way, to promote Pageflakes. It's a start page similar to iGoogle or Netvibes. The idea is that you can put a whole bunch of things (ie, widgets/flakes) that you like all together on a page, or a tab. You could have a very basic "home" start page, with your email, a game that you always play, the weather, a calendar, and some RSS feeds. You can also have more specialized tabs--ones devoted to music, sports, science, etc. Then if you really want to, you can also publish this particular tab into a "pagecast" and other people can see it and use it too. It's a great way to share information, and so--I've made one!

Make your way on over, or just read my little summary of it here:

I've tried to keep it organized. On the right are RSS feeds to blogs I like to keep up with. Many are included in my blogroll. I'll need to update my blogroll. One of them is this blog you are now currently reading. (On a side note, a cool thing aboutPageflakes is that you can click a button and view a pagecast as if it were an RSS reader.)

To the left, under the introduction are two search engines (already loaded with search words) to keep us updated on current, related pieces of news and blog entries. And remember Maigemu? I've bookmarked his "mission" tags. I've also shamelessly bookmarked my own Diigo bookmarks.

And here's something juicy--the annotated bibliography I've been giving sneak peeks to! It's done really techno-savvily with Zotero, a source-bookmarking add-on to Firefox, and Citeline, an online tool that automatically types up bibliographies for you, made by those geniuses at MIT. It's okay if this isn't your favorite part of the pagecast, though. I understand if it's a bit dry.

Next, some websites for getting involved... All three of these websites are sites of organizations founded by a man named Cameron Townsend. The first is Wycliffe Bible Translators, an organization I've mentioned before. They are a mission organization aiming to send people out to translate Bibles. Besides actual Bible translators, included in the work force (partially through the closely related Wycliffe Associates) are language surveyors, literacy specialists, teachers for the kids of missionaries, even librarians, and many many more.

They work very closely with JAARS, of whose site I've included as third in the pagecast. JAARS is an organization aiming to aid missionaries in other, more specialized and technical ways (eg, radio transmission, aviation, information technology, contsuction).

The second website included (yes, I understand I'm explaining out of order) is OneStory. OneStory aims to make voice recordings of Bible stories for oral-based cultures. It's a great step toward actual Bible translation.

And the last little bit of this pagecast, tacked onto the right column under the RSS feeds are two websites full of great linguistic information--SIL International and its publication, the Ethnologue, a collection of the world's languages.

And.. that concludes my pagecast! I hope you have fun using the pagecast and looking at all the things I like to look at!

--kowai-kawaii

edit: I've updated and changed the pageflake a little bit, so it currently is a bit different than what I've written about here... And I'm sure it will continue to change, too, so just go there and check it out! :)

Soulmates?

Are we supposed to have one soulmate? I think I might have two: let's say I'm Christine Daae: I have a Raoul: and a Phantom:

Raoul I have known for a while and he provides me with stability. The Phantom is a recent adventure, very enriching...

Yeah... no, my analogy ends here because I personally feel that the Phantom is a crazy, bitter person. Anyway--can I do this? Is it cool behavior to have two soulmates? Can I even call them my "soulmates" if I have more than one?

Oh, but before we get too philosophical, who are my "loves"? Well, it's kind of embarrassing to admit it, but I found them online. Through Delicious. But it's even more embarrassing to admit that my love for them is unrequited. At least, they probably don't know I exist. That's fine, cuz I haven't introduced myself to them, so I don't expect anything. (Maybe they aren't my soulmates, if I don't care whether they know of my existence or not...) Enough dilly-dallying. Let me introduce them to you!

The "soulmate" I had in mind as Raoul, just because I recognized this name (the way Christine and Raoul recognize each other in the early part of the story) is:

Kouya. You might sort-of remember this name from my January 29th post (if indeed you, reader, clicked on the link I provided for "the Arthurs' 'blog'"). "Kouya" is the Arthurs, Eddie and Sue of the UK. I was excited to see that they also use Delicious. Bible translators for twenty years, they have a clear interest in related, additional topics, such as ethnomusicology, the Jesus film, etc. The sad thing is that their participation at Delicious seems to be on hold. Not having commented on any bookmarks, yet having made tags into convenient bundles, the last bookmark marked of their less than 30 bookmarks was marked June 2006. Best stick to their active blog. Maybe my second "soulmate" will be more...present and available.

Or a little too present and available, if I'm still rolling with my analogy, and he were the crazy-pedophilic-kidnapping Phantom. Irregardless, the second one is Maigemu. A currently active user of Delicious, Maigemu's interests include a lot of intellectual aspects of Christianity. Some tags include Calvinism, Arminianism, eschatology, and theology. See, very brainy. A slight departure from Bible translation, yes, but nonetheless, a good indicator of a sharp, well-rounded mind. Nearing 1300 tags, this guy is at treasure trove of information. Too bad his tags aren't organized into little convenient bundles the way Kouya's are.

Well, if I were still Christine, and Maigemu the Phantom, he'd teach me this song to perform and share with you all: Interserve International. This organization is

a network of Christians from all over the world who, using their professional skills, work together to serve people of Asia and the Arab world - getting alongside them in tackling material, physical, mental and spiritual needs. (emphasis added)

I know many mission organizations have this same type of focus (though not necessarily to the same regions of the world), but I'd just like to remind myself and you, readers, that Bible translation isn't just about learning a language and translating some words. It's about doing what those words actually say--which is to love God and to love our neighbors. What better way to love than to serve by doing what we can for others holistically? Help to give people what they need, just the way Jesus did with us!

--kowai-kawaii

Let's get connected, yeah yeah yeah

Soo, exploring the great interwebs is fun. I really do spend too much time doing it. And my Firefox "bookmarks" thing isn't that great because organizing is a bit of a hassle and not everything fits that well into specific folders. So hmm, what about a social bookmarking site? Which one will be best for me? Well, what am I looking for? I'm not that big on networking, but if people have some of the same interests and have found new, different things--awwesome. I guess the key words I should be searching up would be "Bible", "translation", and then maybe "missions", if "Bible"+"translation" is still too broad. So let's see...

Stumbleupon is too fun. A search doesn't bring me anything too interesting that I didn't really already know about. I'll use this site to procrastinate.

Of course, Citeulike is a keeper, just because it's so academic. I don't know if it exactly has information that I'd want specifically regarding Bible translation, but it wouldn't hurt to dig around and to use it for other classes and research, too.

Trailfire and Twine are...interesting...but the overall concept of both of them are not really what I'm looking for. Looking at someone's trail is a bit weird. Do I really need to have all this information fed to me? Twine is a bit better cuz I guess multiple people can contribute to a specific topic, but still. I'd rather find my own stuff my own way. Besides, searching up my specific tags in these two sites don't bring up a lot for me.

And too bad an iceberg hit RSS Ma.gnolia. I've heard good things about it, especially presentation. I guess its saved webpages for users aren't exactly "unsinkable". This aspect of Magnolia makes me think of Furl, and after looking up my tags, I think I could use this one, especially if I really want to be able to save webpages. I don't know if I want/need to yet. I mean, I don't currently even use a bookmarking site anyway, so...I guess I won't know if I need it until I try stuff out. A plus is that, with the ability to make and join groups, this site's social life seems pretty healthy.

Although Digg is so popular, I'm afraid it's too popular. It's like "popular" music--people generally like it, but it's not that substantial. Not for my topic, anyway. The simple search of "bible translation" actually brings this friend:

No results Found

Every site I've mentioned so far have actually at least brought me something, whether its stuff related purely to translation or to Bible study. So maybe Digg just has a really bad search engine tool thing but nevertheless--in my opinion, Digg has limited value: it's purely a casual, "Hmm what's up..." site.

And now... down to the juicy, meaty bits: Delicious and Diigo!! Delicious has so many dang users--a plus--because there's a lot showing up in my searches. Besides that, its layout is friendly. Its delicious.. and friendly... so tempting... But let's not forget Diigo. Community here seems to be stressed a lot more. With Diigo, it's so much easier to communicate within the community because of the highlighting and sticky noting. Verry niice... Delicious and Diigo together... I like...

--kowai-kawaii

(And check out what I found today!: The Johnson family in Papua New Guinea.)