My name is Citromike - a combination of Citro-en (I've owned dozens of the cars) and Mike (my real middle name). I've used Citromike as part of my email address for nearly 20 years.
For 44 years I've been gainfully employed in publishing, as writer, editor, publisher and consultant. You'll soon see that I like organization and heirarchy and headings in bold fonts; that I worked in technical and educational publishing rather than magazines; and that I like to define my terms. For example, "Monetizing" is not a word that I'd choose to repeat in polite company.
I've been blogging for 30 months now - creating nearly 600 posts. Every weekday, day in and day out, with only the occasional day off for holidays. You can find them at excelmathmike.blogspot.com.
But I've retired now, and I'm heading in a new direction, taking on a new identity, and a new mission.
In the meantime, millions of other bloggers in the world have taken all the easy and obvious blog titles. So I have titled this blog Curating Cazalea. Google likes this unique name, and I believe it reflects the task I am taking on.
How so? you may ask, What does it mean?
Definitions
1. A curator (from Latin: cura meaning "care") is a manager or overseer. A curator is keeper of a cultural heritage institution (e.g., gallery, museum, library, etc.) and a content specialist responsible for its collections and material. A curator is concerned with tangible objects - artwork, collectibles, historic items or scientific collections.Note: as in the case of this definition, I may adopt small bits and pieces from Wikipedia. I contribute both money and content to Wikipedia, and I encourage you to do the same. However, since I am an incurable editor, I tend to condense and clarify the somewhat verbose definitions found there ...
2. In the same way that a museum curator may acquire objects or an art curator may interpret a work of art, technology's impact on every aspect of life has caused the emergence of technology curators; able to disentangle and interpret a particular technology and apply it to real world situations and society.
3. A curate (from Latin: cūrātus, from cūra meaning "spiritual oversight") a clergyman appointed to assist a parish priest; a clergyman who has charge of a parish.
4. (Irish) an assistant barman.
Enough of that word, now to the other one. Cazalea is a term we created out of thin air to describe our home in California.
Interpretation
These words could define me! A jack-of-all-trades and master of one or two. I have collections, I want to interpret them, I look to their spiritual significance, and I am not adverse to pouring an occasional glass ... in fact Curating intrigues me, and I look forward to learning more about it.
As I look around Cazalea, I seem to have collections of all sorts. In fact, my most notable vice is collecting:
- car books
- detective books
- more books
- real cars
- model cars
- watches
- clocks
- oriental rugs
- oriental rug books
- Russian icons
- icon books
- copper objects
- Mr Bibendum (the Michelin Man)
- stained glass windows
- muselet (champagne caps)
- cymbidium orchids
- tools
- more books
Conclusion
I suppose I should consider Curating the Collections at Cazalea as the long title, and object of this blog. Thanks for stopping by. The next post will be up momentarily ...