How do I feel ambivalent about thee?

Oh, Drupal. I hardly knew ye. Really. I just don't get you.

That's because I'd have to spend months with you just to understand how to even talk to you. And then months after that for things to really work between us. And I just don't have the time, Drupal. Not now, anyway.

You're a confusing piece of work, Drupal. I managed to download a few modules, and even a theme. But did it work? No.Well, yes and no. I found the modules, I configured them, but they just sit there, stupidly, not knowing that I want them to do something. And you didn't tell them to do anything, did you, Drupal? Because I didn't know how to tell you to tell them. So my plans of allowing "Top Terms" to show users the most popular terms used on the site went up in smoke. So did the thesaurus I thought I was building with the module "Similar by Terms." They would have been useful, I think. Especially if my collection were bigger. But, it was not meant to be.

And the theme. We could have had a grand time with CleanFolio, with its professional-looking colors of green, cocoa and brown. But you ruined that, too, didn't you, Drupal?

I'm sorry.I shouldn't lash out. It was just as much your fault as mine. I don't really understand you, not like I should. Can you provide interactivity to users? Can users group and collect items into their own, personal gallery? Can you be that flexible, Drupal? If you can, maybe we can get back together some day. But for now,

see ya.

Drupal for Heroes?

I've got five items uploaded to my website.They're described per the metadata profile that I set up. (Which took way longer than I thought... isn't that always the way?) I'm honestly not sure yet if Drupal is right for my collection. I think I want users to be able to create their own hero page-- by that I mean, select objects from those I have on the website and have them appear on their own pages. So they create a mini-collection. Maybe Drupal can do this; I don't really know.

I am getting to understand Drupal a little better. I had worked with it previously and thought it was HORRIBLE but I didn't really understand that it is a content management system, not just a "website." I'm liking it much better now and do find it more intuitive, once I knew what I was dealing with. However, there is still a very negative aspect to Drupal. Whenever I hear that word, Drupal, this image pops into my head:

It's Droppo from the stupidest movie in the history of mankind: Santa Claus Conquers the Martians. As you might guess, that is no hyperbole. So pity me and despise Droppo for what he has done to me.

Holy Heroes!

So one of our first tasks in our Advanced Digital Collections course is to collect 15-20 digital items that we'll eventually use when we build our little mini online museums/archives. (I think.) I actually had a bit of trouble deciding what to collect. I'm sure I made it more difficult than it really is, of course. As it always does, my mind eventually drifted back to-- what else?-- Star Wars, and I hit upon my theme-- heroes.

Since the day I discovered Joseph Campbell and his ideas of the hero archetype, I've been fascinated by the type of stories that, for whatever reason, belong to the human experience whatever the culture.

So, my collection idea started from there and branched out to include a pretty broad definition of heroes-- real-life heroes, ancient heroes, superheroes, and movie heroes. Songs about heroes, radio stories of heroes, pictures of heroes, videos about heroes, and stories of heroes. I even included a satire of heroes.

Here's a list of the items in my collection:

1. Martin Luther King's "I Have a Dream" speech (video)
2. Editorial about sports heroes (audio)
3. Interview with "Sully" Sullenberger (radio)
4. Superman picture (image)
5. Luke Skywalker picture a la Obama "Hope" design (image)
6. Luke Skywalker picture w/ lightsaber, black background (image)
7. Luke Skywalker picture in flight suit w/lightsaber, fire background (image)
8. George Lucas discussing Joseph Campbell (video)
9. "Have Gun Will Travel" song (audio)
10. "Superfriends" (1973) opening credits (video)
11. "Superfriends" do "Office Space" (video)
12. "The Odyssey" (pdf)
13. "Clash of the Titans" movie trailer (video)
14. "Holding out for a Hero" song (audio)
15. "What is a Hero?" CBS news segment (video)
16. Subway Hero CBS news segment (video)
17. Herakles killing the Nemean Lion vase (image)
18. Hercules comic book segment (pdf)
19. "Profiles in Courage" excerpts (pdf)
20. "The Woman Who Dared" editorial cartoon of Susan B. Anthony (image)

There could be many ways to access my collection. I might use "real" and "imaginary" as descriptors. "Ancient" and "modern" could also work. Describing by format image, sound, video, document, etc. might be useful. Keywords such as "lucas," "georgelucas," "george_lucas," "star," "wars," "starwars," star_wars," "skywalker," "lukeskywalker," "luke_skywalker," etc. can get out of hand right away. I think I'd like to enable user tagging to make keyword more efficient.

As to who might access this collection, I would think teachers, schoolchildren, and anybody with an interest in heroes. It's a broad enough subject that it should appeal to many people. It's not, however, the place to do serious research.