Date: Tue, 18 Apr 1995 12:31:37 -0400 (EDT)
From: Prague Spring (pamplona@umich.edu)
To: Zubin (nancylin@umich.edu), cArOWAy@aol.com,
Michael Joyce (MIJOYCE@vaxsar.vassar.edu),
Punk_Guest (nigelk@umich.edu)
Subject: CRZ.CZ
CRZ.............crz.................cry
I am sitting at an old desk in an old office tower in Prague which is
called the Motokov building and used to be the place where the old regime
took care of all the bureaucracy surrounding the export of Skoda cars
(skoda in Czech also means "too bad, it's a pity" - why were the cars
called this?). Ken, who works here now at OMRI (http://www.omri.cz/),
informs me that the surrounding neighborhood (the outskirts of Prague,
away from the old city, where the three "skyscrapers" are) is an excellent
example of "socialist realism" which means grey brick and metal buildings
in boring repetitive patterns which dampen all enthusiasm and apparently
also any signs of life -- no trees squirrells birds children, etc. SO in
the middle of all this grey, and next to a window on the sixth floor that
overlooks a construction sight which has been a construction site for over
eight years and probably will be a construction sight for quite some time
because no work has been done on it since Soviet money left, I finally get
a relatively speedy internet connection, which seems sollllluxurious, and
I oopen telnet and Netscape at the same time and realize that I have been
without this ritual for less than two weeks now but it seems like ages. I
see the flurry of messages from you all about the project, and I am
touched to read that I have been consciously included in cc. I paste the
URL in the "open" dialog box, and get an error message. Nancy, you told
me how you poked around in my Index before you really knoew me and I do
the same, poking around in your Projects index to find whatr I might be
looking for. When I see my stamp, which I recognize and yet do not
because I have never seen it that way before, I begin to feel that
tingling sensation in my nose that comes just before crzing crying.
Luckily Ken has just left the room to help a woman with an Easter European
accent who says "Ken, when you install internet on my computer you do not
give me password!" so I am free to let some hot tears fall and noot have
to explain whz. Why. It is partly because I could not be there, here,
somewhere, to participate; partly because it seems I was a paarticipant
and I am touched in the same way a person is touched when she receives
flowers because it means that another has been thinking of her when she
was not around, and also because she can enjoy the flowers. I explore and
love what I see. I expected nothing less. I will write some things here
which you can use or not; I don't know if eveything is over "sealed in
stone" or if there will be chances to add later. I saw a lot at the
conference which inspired me. I will talk about that first. Then maybe
for contrast I will mention the things which made me sad. Inspiring is
VRML, virtual reality modelling language, which is a kind of markup
language which describes "worlds" which can be viewed through a browser.
It took my breath away because it is exactly like what Nancy and I
discussed about conceptual data models and her ideas of what libraries
should be. This is how a MOO could be but 1000 times better (at least for
me because I am inclined toward the visual). Right now it isan infant but
what a beautiful one. They have information up (please don't hold the
site against them) at http://vrml.wired.com and gave such a spectacular
demonstration - much of the code is "borrowed" from other sources
(collabos?) and they are firmly committed to open standards. I wonder
what you will think about this - take a look and let me know what your
thoughts are. I also was impressed by the committment people sseem to
have to discussing sgml and other style standards before the fact this
time, as sgml browsers are at the point of suspension above the precipice
just before they are proliferated throughout the world. I also loved
seeing the browser that a kid from Denmark wrote which has all sorts of
wquirky features but I love it because he just wrote it for fun and wants
to share it. Humans are great. A quote I love from Thomas Merton is
something about how he's like to tell the whole world of humanity that
they are all shining like the sun (I just mangled it badly -- maybe
someone could find it? I have it underlined in a bookin my room) and that
is how I feel about people ingeneral. I [heart] T. Merton; I [heart] you
all, I [heart] the world. Must leave, the soviet is shutting down. The
setting sun over Petrin, the only hill in Prague, is golden-ing everything
and after all this grey I need to be outside. Until later, soon.
-S