Day: July 29, 2006

A Bit about Me

Ryan Deschamps rants

Couple of things about where I’m at right now:

  • What’s On my iPod?

Ok.   Overdone, but not to me.  So here goes:

  1. Gustav Holst —  “Mars the Bringer of War” from The Planets.  (I actually like “Jupiter” more because there’s a theme in there that my wife and I used as the procession at our wedding.)
  2. Raffi — “Tingalayo” from One Light, One Sun.   My son gives me a great opportunity to listen to Raffi and not feel childish.  🙂
  3. Jale — “Drag” from So Wound.   (I’m grooving on Jale recently.   They are sort of local and sort of coming out of the old grunge scene.   But they are great for sure.)
  4. Robert Charlebois — “Demain L’hiver”.   (A separatist-ish Quebecois singer song-writer from the 60s.  After Leonard Cohen and Joni Mitchell, maybe the best Canadian song writer ever.  I love this song, alot of interesting tirades in french that are both sassy and hilarious.)
  5. Gladys Knight and the Pips “Every beat of my heart”.   (Sweet, sweet voice that Gladys Knight.)
  6. Edith Piaf, “Histoire de Coeur.”   (I love that French cafe sound and noone does it better than Edith Piaf.)
  7. Leonard Cohen “Sisters of Mercy”.   (There’s Leonard!   My favorite.   I am clapping somewhere in the recording of this song from his Live album.)
  8. The Clash “Know Your Rights”.   (Sarcastic lyrics with cool bass guitar.)
  9. Ives “Symphony no. 2”.   (Charles Ives is wonderful.   Always surprising.)
  10. Bill Henderson “I’ve Got a Crush on You.”  (I’m a Gershwin fan.)
  • What’s MPOW?

Halifax Public Libraries.   That’s Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada — not England.  I’m the eLearning Services Manager there.

  • My Philosophy?

Probably a pragmatist.   I don’t believe in complaining without offering something resembling a solution to go with it.   As far as religion, spirituality, etc., i say — “do what works.”   If the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster bring spiritual fulfillment, then that’s the way to go.

  • Dream?

I think I would like to help communities build libraries in developing countries.

  • What are you reading right now?

David Vise and Mark Malseed, The Google Story.    A little rah-rah, but Google anything is an amazing story.

  • Favorite thing to do?

Playing with my son.   I want to get back into playing badminton again, though.   I also used to sing some jazz.

  • Why did you start a blog?

I realized that I was a bit isolated at MPOW from a learning perspective.    I am sort of like a department of one, which means I don’t get to talk about things techie with others very often.   So, blogging is my way of gathering a network of people who know more about this stuff than I do.

  • Other social softwares?

I don’t use Flickr to the max because I don’t own a digital camera.   I hate taking photos anyway.

I have a MySpace account but i don’t really use it.

I guess the online networking thing is not something I’m attached to that much.

I think I said before that I am more interested in people’s ideas than I am their lives.   That’s supposed to be an entp trait.   But I have a few good online friends that keep me in touch.

That’s it for now.   In lieu of good discussion, I offer this.  I hope it is reasonably interesting.