Poet Ponders the Digital

Visalia Direct: Virtual Valley January Issue December 6, 2006 Visit the Virtual Valley There is a Virtual Valley on the Internet. You can locate the neighborhoods on Yahoo Groups, e-mail lists, and specialized forums on the World Wide Web. No matter your interest, there’s probably a neighborhood or two you will want to visit. Yahoo Groups evolved as Yahoo purchased a number online communities and mailing list services. As a result, Yahoo has one of the largest collections of virtual neighborhoods on the Internet. I belong to more than a dozen of these groups, ranging from English teachers to Web designers. Many of the groups are national, but there are also regional groups. These groups are the ones I like most because you can meet the other members over coffee and share messages online. To locate groups in Visalia, go to http://groups.yahoo.com/ (notice the URL does not begin with “www”) and enter a topic and include “Visalia” in your search. For example, the search “Visal...

Visalia Direct: Virtual Valley December Issue November 14, 2006  (840 words in text) Winter Means Weekend Day Trips As the seasons change and Tule Fog returns to the Valley, many of us embrace a local tradition: escaping to the Central Coast. The consistent temperatures and afternoon sun from Pismo to Monterey are hard to resist in the heat of summer or the fog-shrouded winter. The days might begin foggy along the coast, but it just makes the afternoon sun all the more wonderful. Pismo Beach markets itself as “Classic California,” and that’s exactly where you go on the Web to plan your escape. Direct your browser to http://www.classiccalifornia.com/ for the city’s tourism guide. If a beautiful picture of the pier at sunset doesn’t get your attention, the local weather report probably will. Sunny and 65 degrees has a way of enticing me to the beach in December. To rub it in a bit, the Pismo site has been posting both the Valley weather forecast and the Pismo forecast. N...

Visalia Direct: Virtual Valley October 8, 2006 No Small Towns Online “My parents don’t have a clue. They think I only have the AOL account.” I was sitting in a College of the Sequoias classroom, where I was taking a Spanish class. During the afternoons, I was teaching English at Fresno State, but in the mornings I was just another student at COS. From my place in a hard plastic seat, I was learning a lot. This student with a laptop was updating his MySpace profile. Actually, he was creating a new profile after his parents had located his previous online profile. His parents had located his old profile because he had used his American Online e-mail address. After seeing a news broadcast, his parents decided to check on their son. “Now, I use one of my Gmail accounts or Hotmail when I create a profile. We all know to use nicks, too.” By obtaining numerous free e-mail accounts and using nicknames online, students of all ages are hiding from their parents. I’m sure this yo...

Visalia Direct: Virtual Valley September 12, 2006 Places to Bookmark, Places to Go! I love the arts, which means I’m always wondering what’s new to see or do. If you want to know what’s happening in the Visalia area, one thing you should do is “bookmark” the Web sites of several local performing arts organizations. These organizations post announcements of events, season schedules, and other useful information. It wasn’t easy to locate some sites, but now I have a good list of entertainment options. When looking for entertainment, my first stops on the Web are local theatrical organizations. The Visalia Community Players are on the Web at www.visaliaplayers.org. I love the Ice House Theatre, with its comfortable lobby and great main stage. The Players post their entire season online, including all performance dates and times. Sponsors are also credited, so I remind myself to support the businesses that care about Visalia’s artistic heritage. The Enchanted Playhouse can be foun...

Visalia Direct: Virtual Valley August 19, 2006 Wanting to Share Visalia: Our Wiki Entry Nobody seems to know how to say “Visalia” or “Tulare” when I travel. I explain where I am from by mentioning Fresno and Bakersfield, but it turns out most people have no real understanding of where those cities are, either. “How close are you to Los Angeles or San Francisco?” people asked me at the “Computers and Writing” conference in Lubbock. The intention of the gathering was to share ways to better include technology in meaningful classroom assignments, so I turned on my laptop and headed for some familiar Web sites. “It’s surrounded by farmland,” I tried to explain. “And on a clear day, you can see the Sierras.” I turned to Google Earth to show satellite images of farmland. That still didn’t do the trick. The Texans wanted more information if I was going to claim some place in California was anything like Lubbock. “Just show me the entry on Wiki,” a Texas Tech professor suggested. ...

Visalia Direct: Virtual Valley July 20, 2006 Searching for Visalia Anytime I prepare to visit a new city I turn on my computer, open a Web browser, and head for Google. Entering the city name into the search field usually gives me a great idea of places to see, things to do, and what the local residents consider important. I used to sit in Borders to skim Rand maps and Frommer’s guides, but Google changed everything. In the last three months, I have “Googled” cities in seven states. I often begin with a search for the best Mexican food, a requirement no matter where I travel. Then, I search for places to stay. Ideally, I like to stay within walking distance of whatever I’m doing. It’s amazing what Google has helped me discover, but Google can only find information already on the Web. I began to wonder what would happen if I “Googled” Visalia in exactly the same way I do other cities. I went to Google, entered “Visalia” into the search field, and clicked “Google Search.” I anti...