A step back in time to La Alberca

La Alberca's Paza Mayor

Perhaps the most enchanting step back in time I took on my 2009/2010 Europe trip was the village of La Alberca in Spain. I was staying nearby while volunteering at Pueblo Inglés (from which I have many memories but have not written much, except a brief post, Consulting My Pillow in La Alberca).

In Spain, every village has its own distinct design. My friend
Lisa Ch, sporting the La Alberca village ring we both bought there
(this pic from later that year, when we reconnected in NYC)

Anyways, it was with interest that I stumbled across this enchanting post by a traveller who has been there more than once, and though that I'd share it.

"When my parents came to visit in Madrid last year, they brought with them some of my old photos, a box of a few hundred slides I’d set aside years ago. It was a random sampling of the uncounted thousands of Kodachromes and Fujichromes I have sitting in the not-so-archival environment of my parent’s damp basement in Toronto.

There are a lot of things I prefer about digital photography over film, but film has digital beat when it comes to looking at old photographs. You get to hold the actual original thing, for starters, and you can see it without having to plug anything in. Slides can’t be perfectly copied in a keystroke, they’re one of a kind. And for that same reason, you see them only once in a while. They get put into deep storage and get forgotten about until they surface sometime later, like artefacts from the past.

Photo copyright Spain by Mike Randolf

There was one slide in particular that caught me eye. I took it out of the plastic sleeve and held it up to the window. My uncle Miguel had died the year before, but in the image, taken some twenty-five years ago, he looked not much older than I am now. We were in a village called La Alberca with my aunt and an old woman we met while wandering around..." [read more on Spain by Mike Randolf].

It's a great story.

Mike also has some great photos, they are really worth a look.

Tuesday

It's Tuesday, what else can I say?
OT last night, a nice bonus, when I can get it.
Still doing the multiple-career balancing act.
One cannot do everything well, long accepted by me, though the transition remains on the tricky side. How to stay on top of things when I am not fully engaged isn't my fortay (sp?), but I keep experimenting. Biggest challenge perhaps is communication. I live by honest, timely and clear communication... no, I should say that's what I value - and when I don't get that, it really throws me for a loop. Especially when I am aware of the environment, and on the balance, I choose to stay with something that is going to let me down, surely, in the future. What can I say, if I have chosen with my eyes wide open? To negotiate or reason is futile, so the challenge for me is how to process it when it happens. I can't let others get my goat.


LET GO OF MY GOAT!!!!!


Now there is a doodle idea...

Randomness

So much for blogging before work... it seems that the tired-er I get, the later I leave, and the less time I have before work. But a good reminder as to how much I prefer arriving super early.


Last week was a heavenly break from routine. Last Monday I 'finally' qualified to be able to take unpaid vacation at my new work, without impacting my status (it has been a long slog, but I made it!). They were kind enough to grant me my request to take the rest of the week off. I requested this only partly because I was burnt out and needed a break, but primarily due the extraordinary timing: my niece was in town, so she and my sister were out every day with the van (I had been planning to bus it all week). So......... this meant that if I was home, and they were out, I would - finally - get some stretches of time alone. So that's actually what I did.


After 30 years of living alone, it is still an enormous adjustment to have spent the last 9 years living with other people. Especially when there has been no ability to get away from each other.
I had a HEAVENLY week... perhaps made so much so because I hadn't been expecting it or even hoping for it. Suddenly, pow, there it was. What a relief!


Not that I did much (although that was the point).


I did create a new reading spot in my bedroom, so that I can be alone and not just lounge on my bed, or sit at a desk. It's a spot where I have been reading, journaling, drawing, and propping up my dinner to eat in solitude while doing puzzles. With my headphones on, listening to a podcast or book, I am in another world. It's made a world of difference.

Review: Aliens of Extraordinary Ability

Aliens of Extraordinary Ability by Maeve Higgins, Shaina Feinberg, Cristela Alonzo, Alysia Reiner, Cole Escola, Karim Nematt, Carlos Ib
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Transported me
What a lovely little audio drama. It felt like a docu drama. At first, it was simply entertaining, then I became aware of how the lives of these 'illegal immigrants' parallel the lives of people today. The ups and downs, the joys and the fears. Always the fears. Although set in New York City, and our treatment of immigrants is different in Canada, it gave me new compassion for those establishing new lives here. And empathy for refugees and immigrants everywhere. Listen and let Aliens of Extraordinary Abilities transport you...

View all my reviews

The genius of VocalID

How this escaped my radar, I'll never know, but it's brilliant.

FIRST: take a moment to think of Stephen Hawking's voice

THEN: read on...

Just after I first arrived in Korea, I was listening to NPR TED Radio Hour when I heard Rupal Patel being interviewed about her big new idea for synthetic voices. I was so inspired by the story, and I remember tearing up when I heard some of the voices that were created for people with speech disorders. The new technology blends together the speech sounds of a person who is unable to speak with sounds from a voice donor and creates a brand new, unique computerized voice for the individual... [read more on the Life in Limbo blog].

Many of those with severe speech disorders use a computerized device to communicate. Yet they choose between only a few voice options. That's why Stephen Hawking has an American accent, and why many people end up with the same voice, often to incongruous effect. Speech scientist Rupal Patel wanted to do something about this... [watch the TED Talk].

UVic linguistics associate professor Sonya Bird was listening to the CBC Radio “Spark” program in early 2014 when she first heard the voice of Rupal Patel, a Canadian researcher based in Boston who launched the VocaliD Human Voicebank in May 2014. The interview ignited Bird’s immediate interest in contributing to Patel’s mission to connect those living with a severe speech disorder (or limited speech) to their own unique vocal identities. Now, as a result of an eight-month volunteer effort by the Voice Drive Victoria group in collaboration with local speech language pathologist Gail Poole, more than 100 people in our region have donated their voices to this global effort ... [read more about UVIC's contribution].

VocalID links
About VocalID
About the VoiceBank

Related resources
Synthetic voices, as unique as fingerprints - TED Tallk by Rupal Patel
Everything you need to know about donating your voice: Why you should help The Human Voicebank Initiative - TED Blog
Lending voice to an international initiative - UVIC
Speech Donors - CBC Spark Podcast
Vocal ID: Donate Your Voice - Life in Limbo blog