Elisa Derickson

I love and am very passionate about podcasts, so it’s natural that I’ve taken the dive into podcasting myself.

I’ve just edited and released the first episode of Queerspeak, the podcast version of a local open mike featuring local members of Madison’s queer community and  its allies. This open mic event would not have happened without the involvement and support of Madison’s LGBTQ Narratives group, and I give special gratitude to Erin Doolin for hosting and arranging the Open Mic and Kiki Kosnick for running the LGBTQ Narratives group.

Queerspeak can be heard at queercheese. It can also be accessed through the iTunes store here: http://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast//id483987441

People who are interested in more information on Queerspeak can find out about it at its Facebook Page here.

Tech Notes: The podcast was recorded straight to Voice Memo on my iPhone and edited in Audacity, so the sound’s a little low-res. I decided that imperfect sound was better than no sound for this project. For the future I will be interested in borrowing some higher quality audio recording equipment.

January 2009, Winfield, IL

The following is a poem for my friend John Michael Randolph, who died on June 11, 2011, from a pneumonia infection.

John’s health problems stemming from treatments for childhood cancer — the cause of his short stature — persisted throughout his life. He rarely discussed those directly, but he did talk about how cancer had shaped his spirituality. He started a blog on the topic in April 2011.

Towards the end of his life, as part of his spiritual quest, John converted to Bahai’ism. He appreciated that Baha’i is a religion that acknowledges the legitimacy of many religious traditions.

John most often leaned towards optimism when it came to his health. However, 6 weeks before he died he wrote to me to say that he thought he had only 10-15 years left to live. I tried to argue with him, thinking that this was leftover fear from the cancer, but he told me that the statistics bore this out. Unfortunately, he didn’t even have 10 years and he was gone 6 weeks later.

I have crafted this poem using lines from one of John’s favorite Baha’i quotes, and from one of the emails he sent me prior to passing away, telling me that he thought his death was a mere 10 years away.

Beloved John

Thou hast, moreover, asked Me concerning the state of the soul after its separation from the body. Know thou, of a truth, that if the soul of man hath walked in the ways of God, it will, assuredly, return and be gathered to the glory of the Beloved. By the righteousness of God! It shall attain a station such as no pen can depict, or tongue describe. — Bahá’u’lláh

“I have about 10 to 15 years left to live. Based on recent studies done recently about hodgkins disease and the treatments I had, only 30 percent of people make it after 30 years after treatment. I am right at that mark. There is no evidence of anything platuing, so the chances of dying from a secondary cancer, heart disease, other related radiation/chemo stuff keeps going up and up the longer one lives. But, I’ve beat the odds before and I am seeing an integrative doctor that combines eastern and western medicine.” — John Randolph, March 23, 2011

Based on years left to live,
there is no evidence of anything.
I will return to the Glory of the Beloved,
attain a station going up and up.
Describe eastern and western odds
based on medicine.

Thou hast medicine,
years after treatment, to live
before the odds,
going up and up.
Before anything,
return to the Glory of the Beloved.

Only 30 percent of people make it, Beloved
soul of man, know thou of a truth, medicine
related that the chances of dying keeps going up.
Before the righteousness of God, live.
Mark truth in anything,
beat the odds.

Thou has asked me concerning the odds.
Only 30 percent of people make it after 30, Beloved,
and I am right at that mark. By anything
the chances of dying, concerning medicine,
the longer one had to live,
I am seeing up.

I have walked up
from the body. By odds
going up and up I live.
The state of the soul will return, Beloved.
Hodgkins disease and the treatments, concerning medicine,
the chances of anything.

After Hodgkins Disease, I am anything.
I am right at that mark, beat up,
about 10 to 15 years left to live, based on medicine.
The separation odds,
return and be gathered to the glory of the Beloved.
By God, live.

Medicine beat the odds before, but there is no evidence of anything.
I have to live, but thou return up and up.
I pen odds and truth, but thou attain a station such as no pen can depict, or tongue describe, Beloved.

Today I did my part for the internet by throwing together a Cheap Haiku Generator based on the Haiku I did for @30DayHaiku on twitter over the summer.    I hacked it up in PHP, using a random function to switch lines of those haiku around. Users can select for a random haiku, or a well intentioned one based on their selections. There were 30 original haiku, so the random ones are based on those.

Here’s a typically regular haiku:

Fold

Folding clean white sheets

is simple, but don’t ignore

that complex, sweet smell.

and a random one — sometimes oddly fitting:

Wallet

Coffee: Addictive,

one dreams of new adventure,

in America.

This kind of project demonstrated to me that it’s pretty easy to write facebook apps.   The facebook api requires that certain portions of facebook’s php-sdk be downloaded to the folder the app is in and that certain attributes are filled out — that’s it for a simple PHP program that doesn’t touch the user’s data. I learned the basics from kumarchetan.com’s tutorial.  Meanwhile, because I don’t like to worry about the front end unless I have to, I used appNitro’s PHP Form generator to make the form pretty.   I look forward to testing an app out soon that uses status updates — slightly more advanced functions of the API.

The haiku generator is available here for your entertainment.