Posting Photo from Playbook

I'm testing Blogger's ability to play nice with Playbook. I'd like to add a picture here.

And sure enough, I can do that!

Complications with Quotation Marks, Punctuation, and Hyperlinks

Here's a problem I have with punctuation and hyperlinks. When I quote online resources, I like to include at least an author-title-source-date citation, with the title hyperlinked to the original source. When I encounter a title that includes quote marks, things get complicated:

"Robert's internal 'war,' while being held in check at the moment, makes Robert a very dangerous person to the rest of society," Zell said. "The two threads woven through him, obsessive compulsive controlling behavior and anger, will never change. Robert acknowledges the same" [John Hult, "Judge to Eric Robert: 'May God Have Mercy on Your Soul'," Argus Leader, 2011.10.27].

See those quote marks in the article title? Normal punctuation rules dictate that we enclose the article title in double quotes, and that we transform the quote marks within the title to single quotes. Problematically, the comma with which we normally separate the article title and the newspaper title is supposed to go inside the closing single quote mark as well.

I've felt that placement of the comma inside the closing single quote breaks up the integrity of the original article title. I find that problem compounded when I follow my normal hyperlinking style rule of applying the hyperlink to the complete article title. The hyperlink should include exactly the text that constitutes the article title. In this case, that should include the closing single quote mark. But if I follow normal title-quotation punctuation rules, extending my hyperlink to include the closing single quote mark also includes the comma, which delineates the title but is not part of it.

Thus, I choose hyperlink-title integrity over traditional comma placement.

sign language for star

sign language for star
what else need we say?
firmament in hand
thing we know only
in miniature
sphere undimensioned
light unshadowing
far gravity dimmed
each star pins our souls
move that little hand
you touch what none can
you sign in silence
queen of silent sky

Solstice Temple

Frost makes a temple of night
Branches, barbed wire, air itself encrystaled
All lines diffuse, substance in question
Light in air made firm
Great beams leap up
Yardlights, farm yard driveway
Fold and focus photons upward
Forming pillars in the frost
Temple firmer seen from afar
Columns quarter mile apart
Five, six across the frozen lake
This sparse parthenon
Cold to bundled, cloud-exhaling supplicants
Ringed in shafts of icy light
Buttressing the unseen vault
Lost in darkness above.

Read with Passion

No, really.
Throw everything in. Everything.
That means you.
If the poem were just the words on the page,
I wouldn't have invited you.
I'd buy the book
Read it silently, fearful someone might see my lips move
Then hand the pages without a word to someone else.
These words are your connection to me and everyone else.
Say them that way.
Turn off your damned Ira Glass ironic detachment
And deliver them
Exude them
Sweat and strain and proclaim them
Hammer and nail them
Beat them senseful
And let them beat you back, beat you up
Wring you out and overflow you
Mean the words
Be the words
BE THEM.

That's how it's done.

DissProp

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Links Page for DRA RE-EF Project

Thank you for taking Dakota Rural Action's survey on energy efficiency!

If you'd like to learn more about things you can do at your home, farm, or business to use energy more efficiently, check out these resources:

• Midwest Energy News: "Tracking issues from Ohio to the Dakotas," this online daily compiles energy-related news relevant to Midwestern readers. Midwest Energy News comes from St. Paul-based non-profit Fresh Energy.
• Home Power: Since 1987, this magazine has published news and views on solar, wind, hydro, and other technologies to help individuals produce their own power and reduce their dependence on the grid.
• Mother Earth News: This Kansas-based publication covers a wide range of sustainable living issues. Folks working on energy efficiency projects will find the Renewable Energy and Green Homes sections particularly useful.
• EnergySavers.gov: Uncle Sam wants you... to save energy! The U.S. Department of Energy offers lots of tips on saving energy and money.
• HUD's Partnership for Advancing Housing Technology (PATH) offers top tips for energy efficiency in new construction and remodeling projects.
• Energy Efficient Rehab Advisor: also offered by PATH, this interactive tool helps you find energy-efficiency remodeling advice specific to your type of home and where you live.