Bullying

Jory in First Grade.  

Jory’s First Grade teacher decided that the children in her classroom would all be called by their given names.  Even though it might have sounded like a nickname for Jordan, Jory was really his given name.  The kids continued to tease him that he had a nickname, not a real name.  He really liked his name, but hated being constantly taunted.

By the time he started Third Grade, he was already sensitive to teasing. It was then when serious bullying began.  After-school Hebrew classes began that year and met each Monday and Wednesday from 4-6 PM and from 9 AM until noon on Saturday mornings.  We lived 35 minutes away from our synagogue, so carpools were formed to drive the kids back and forth.  Unbeknownst to us, one of the carpool kids was an impudent bully.

Jory in Third Grade

It was a tight schedule for us because dismissal from our elementary school was at 3:15 PM.  On those days, I picked up Jory from school, drove him home for a quick bathroom break and snack, and reloaded him, with his Hebrew school backpack, into the car.  We wound our way through several Fullerton neighborhoods, picking up 2 other carpool kids, before heading to Anaheim and Beth Emet Synagogue.  In my car were 3 boys all Jory’s age and Shanon, Jory’s younger brother.  

I was a seasoned carpool chauffeur who had 5 previous years of experience driving older brother Darren’s Hebrew school carpools.  I had learned to keep my ears open and my mouth closed.  Unless the car was on fire, or a kid was carsick in the back seat, I didn’t participate in their conversations, arguments, or jokes.  I just kept driving and counting the minutes until those rambunctious, sweaty boys could be dropped off at Hebrew school.

One day, however, I broke the rule.  Jory, Geoff, and Shanon were in the back seat and it was Eric’s turn to sit in front with me.  The boys’ conversation was about swimming in our backyard pool on hot days.

“Do you ever skinny dip?” asked Eric, straining his neck to look into the back seat.

“Only on Hebrew school days,” replied Jory.  

“That’s weird,” commented Geoff.

“No it’s not!” Jory defended.  “We’re hot and we have to leave right away for Hebrew school, so we strip on the deck, jump in to cool off, and get dressed again so that we can leave on time.”

I didn’t say a word, but kept on driving as I chuckled silently inside.  I was sure that this was probably the only time in history that skinny dipping and Hebrew school were ever serious conjoined topics in a sentence.

The boys’ conversation continued with Geoff.  “Next time, you should hold Shanon’s head down underwater until he stops moving.”

I broke the rule.  I pulled the car to the curb, popped the gear into park, and turned to the back seat.  “Did I hear you correctly, Geoff?” I asked.

“Sure,” he said with smug confidence.  “He bugs me.”

“He’s 3 years old and you’re 9,” I replied.

“I don’t care,” he retorted.

“Well, I do!  Would you like to get out and walk from here?”

There was not a sound from any of the boys, but their eyes were opened wide.  “If anyone has something negative to say about someone else, he will not be riding in my car.  Is that understood?”  We rode in silence the rest of the way.  

The Hebrew school carpool was a necessary evil, so it continued for the next four years that Jory attended religious school at Beth Emet.  Geoff and Eric remained as riders and Jeff continued to harass Jory, despite my futile calls to his mother.

“Be grateful,” I told Jory, “that you are at different schools and don’t have to be with him everyday.”

Jory in Fifth Grade

A couple of years later, when the boys were in Fifth Grade, I received a phone call from the principal of Hermosa Drive School.  “Mrs. Prum, could you please meet with me in my office?”

I was a bit perplexed because Jory attended Laguna Road School and we had no connection with Hermosa Drive School.  I guessed that the meeting was PTA related and most likely about introducing a similar school-wide reading program like the one I had started at Laguna Road.  

I was shocked when the principal began by stating that there had been a physical playground altercation at her school between 2 Fifth Grade boys.  The fight was over Jory.

“Do you know Geoff and Eric?” she asked.  “Geoff was maligning Jory and Eric told him to stop.  When Geoff continued, Eric punched him.  It took several teachers to pull them apart.  I am concerned that your son is being bullied.”

We had been dealing with this issue for several years.  Jory always complained about Geoff doing this or that, or saying bad things to him and disparaging him to others.  I had made several calls to his mother, who believed her brilliant, angelic child was always innocent.  Nothing seemed to change.  I encouraged Jory to stand up for himself, but he never did.  He whined, cried, or sulked and the bullying continued.  

“Jory,” we told him, “Geoff will never stop unless YOU do something about it.”

“I’m trying to ignore him,” he’d reply.

“You’ve been trying that, but it hasn’t worked so far.”

“The only thing that will stop him is if you deck him,” big brother Darren advised.

Nothing changed.  Geoff persisted, Jory was miserable, and the rest of us were frustrated.  I began to look for alternative approaches to solve the problem and decided that Jory should take karate.  I read that people who knew self-defense developed an aura around themselves, so perpetrators chose not to mess with them.  If nothing else, Jory could learn to defend himself.

“Jory,” I began, “I think you should take some karate classes.”

Jory in Sixth Grade

“What for?  I don’t want to,” he replied.

“So you can defend yourself,” I answered.  “If you know karate, maybe Geoff will leave you alone.”

“I don’t want to,” he insisted.

“I wouldn’t make you do anything that I wouldn’t do,” I countered.

“Then you have to do it, too,” he replied.

“OK.  We’ll do it together and Shanon will do it, too.”  I declared.

I found a karate studio that had multi-age classes and we began learning self-defense.  I was the oldest student, Shanon was the most excited, and Jory reluctantly dragged along.  Jory had never been interested in sports or physical exertion, so kicking, punching, and doing push-ups was not his idea of fun.  Yet, he slowly mastered the beginning movements and became more resigned at letting himself tolerate it.  Throughout Sixth Grade, we went twice a week to the dojo for karate classes.  I never really saw an aura of confidence surrounding Jory, but I wouldn’t let him quit.

Jory in Seventh Grade

In Seventh Grade, to our dismay, Geoff’s parents bought a house in our neighborhood and Geoff was enrolled at Parks Jr. High School, along with Jory.  Now the bullying was more prevalent, with daily opportunities in school.  Jory still wouldn’t stand up to Geoff.  

I was at the end of my rope.  “Don’t fool around anymore,” I urged Jory, “when Geoff gives you guff, just give him one good push or a punch and he’ll leave you alone.  You’re bigger than he is, and you’re just as smart.  He’s not going to stop until you push back.”  I was actually shocked to hear myself giving this advice.

Several months later, Jory woke up and was getting ready for school.  He came down the hallway muttering under his breath and punching the wall as he walked.

“Stop hitting the wall,” I reprimanded.  “You’re making it dirty and you might just punch a hole in the wall.  We won’t be happy with you.”  He grabbed his lunch, hopped onto his bike, and rode away to school.

Around 11 AM, the principal at the school where I taught, walked into my classroom.  “You’ve got an urgent phone call from your son’s school.  I’ll take your class while you take the call in my office.”

It was the vice-principal of Jory’s Jr. High, calling to inform me that Jory was being suspended for the rest of the day.  He explained that during the nutrition break, the students were in line to purchase snacks when Jory lined up behind Geoff.  He tapped Geoff on the shoulder.  When Geoff turned around, Jory punched him squarely in the nose saying, “This is for you.”  Geoff ran crying to the principal’s office to report Jory.  All the supervising teachers witnessed the event and confirmed that Geoff had not provoked Jory, nor fought back.

“May I speak to Jory, please?” I asked the vice-principal.

“Hi, Mom.  I did it!” came a jubilant voice over the phone.

“Jory,” I said, “ride your bike home and wait for me.  I’m coming to get you to go to Swensen’s Ice Cream for a frozen banana.  I’m so proud of you.  Now, please give the phone back to the vice-principal.”

“Thank you for calling me,” I began.  “I’ve instructed Jory to ride his bike home and to wait for me.  I’ll be home as soon as I’m able to dismiss my students.  You should know that Geoff has been bullying Jory for several years and this is the first time that he has stood up to him.”

Jory in Eighth Grade

Geoff never openly bullied Jory again.  The following year, in Eighth Grade, one of Jory’s classmates saw Geoff fooling around at the bike racks.  After school, Jory’s bike tires were flat.  Jory just carried on as if nothing had happened, but all the kids at school knew the truth.  A few months later, at a school car wash, Geoff sneaked up behind Jory and dumped a bucket of dirty, soapy water over Jory’s head.  Jory started laughing with his contagious giggle and all the kids joined in at laughing at Geoff, who ran away totally humiliated.

Jory in Ninth Grade

The bullying stopped for good in Ninth Grade when Jory transferred to the Troy Tech Magnet High School and Geoff went onto his designated high school.  Jory turned his experiences as a bully's victim into positive actions by volunteering in the Peer Assistance League at Troy, helping identify and assisting fellow students who were at risk for bullying and suicide.

COMMENTS:  

Click on Jorysmother@gmail.com to send comments.

Jory Prum   2009

I've been in two fights during my life, both with the same kid. The first was in 7th grade, the second in 8th grade.  I won. Both times. He never fucked with me again.

Steve Karlan
Yes, I was victim of bullying too.  Bullying needs to be stopped. 

Cynthia Lewis
Love this one:-) thanks for keeping him fresh in our minds 

Dee Nevares
While you were driving to Hebrew school, I was to CCD. There were many similar battles for mom's benefits. We even had a Robert who was like your Geoff. We may be different sides of U. S. but the same being a mom.

Molly Presser
Bullying has got to be the hardest thing a child has to deal with in his life. Children can be really mean! You did all the right things to help empower him. I love your writing and his photos show a sweet, more confident guy as he grows up. Beautiful story.

Daniel Ruegemer
I really enjoyed this one. Thanks!

Barbara Talento
Love your tales of Jory but this one was my favorite so far.

Karen Chelini Thank you so much for sharing Jory’s stories.  This about bullying is so profound.  Bully parents are to blame, but when they ignore, scoff or downright support their children’s actions we have no choice, but to stand for ourselves.  Luckily, Jory had parents like you to help them navigate such adversity.

Judy Sowell
 I just finished your Jory Story about Bullying.  I loved it.  I agree with some of the comments, that it was one of the best.  I think they said “the best”.  I read an earlier story that I couldn’t stop laughing, but I can’t remember which one.  It had to be the funniest.  I also read your earlier story about “Mosfet”—enjoyed that too.  In addition to being Jory’s Mom,  you are writing some really good stories for those of us who didn’t know him. 

Rita Blumstein
As usual, I enjoy reading your blog.

Jana Majeed
Thanks so much for being an awesome mom, supporting Jory in the difficult situations, and also for sharing this post. Jory was a fantastic support for so many of us who needed a kind heart and listening ear. This blog shows so many glimpses of events that shaped his awesome soul. (I especially love your response when the school called about Jory punching that kid!) Thanks again for sharing <3

Linda Birtler
Thanks for sharing that one. Jory knew how to handle so many things in such a kind and edifying way!

Eva Labes
Oh, Jory. What a gift you always were. I am sorry that kids did this but, you were so brilliant for a young one. I always admired what a strong sense of having fun and being the true you that you embraced. Many struggle to find such.  You didn't give a darn what they thought and the more of you you showed us, the more people admired and respected you. This and the fact that you were a genius with a community heart!

Rayleen Williams
Thank you for sharing this.  The real bully in the story was Geoff's mom.  She condoned Geoff's behavior and in the end severely damaged her own son.  I suspect Geoff has some real problems as an adult and may be passing them on to his children. It was great how Jory's peers stood up for him (Finally).  Between that and Jory standing up for himself, that is how to stop or least diminish bullying. I am deeply saddened, frustrated, and angered that the other adults (school authorities, parents, and teachers)  did not step in immediately.  They are at fault too.  Less than 11 percent of peers and 25% of adults intervene to stop bullying.  I hope stories like Jory"s can change those statistics.  I am currently writing a children's book about a small animal that was bullied and the interventions needed to stop it and for the victim to develop resilience.  Bullying is a serious problem in schools and has been ignored too long.

Rayleen Williams

You had once shared some experiences he had had being bullied.  I have just completed an illustrated children's book about bullying and how to build the resilience to overcome it--Red Finds His Way: A Trilobite's Tale.

 ©  Leslye J. Prum   All Rights Reserved   2017

MOSFET's Marvelous Weekend Adventure

Jory made friends easily.  His friends, from the moment they met, were friends for life.  Each was just as unique as Jory was, but varying in age, gender, and interests.  To Jory, his friends were like gems, each with its own brilliance and radiance, to be respected, cherished, and supported when called upon.  Of course, he complained when friends asked him to fix their computers—a task he detested—but he did it because they were friends and needed assistance.  When asked to help with something fun, adventurous, or romantic, he jumped in with gusto and a grin from ear to ear.

While Jory was hospitalized, and after he passed away, his friends sent us letters and posted on the Internet wonderful memories and “Jory Stories” of their experiences together.  Those stories were the winds beneath our wings that allowed us to carry on each day.  As we faced the ultimate and dreaded future that parents never imagine becoming reality, those untold stories from people we didn’t know, gave us the strength and encouragement to put one foot in front of the other.  We were not alone and our son was universally loved because he made a difference in the lives of others.

One of those special friendships began the day we took Jory out of high school for a college visitation day at CalArts.  He had applied as a potential Music Composition major and was introduced to Scott Looney, a graduate student with the same major.  The two of them hit it off immediately, despite their difference in ages and experience levels.  They were both composers, loved absurd British comedies, and were self-taught Mac geeks, who became technical experts that shared a love of diving into computers to investigate the software and firmware that made them tick.  

“We didn't see each other in classes as I was a grad in Music Composition and he was an undergrad, mainly in the Film school,” explained Scott.  “He was just immensely fun to talk to and be around.”  Scott regularly visited Jory on campus when he just wanted to hang out.

Scott and Jory hanging out in the Bay Area

“When I moved to the Bay Area, I was there only a short while when I got the news that Jory was coming up north to live in the Bay Area and had gotten a job at LucasArts. It was awesome news,” explained Scott.  “I had recently moved from NYC where I was very lonely and picked the Bay Area as the next place to live.  Having Jory there made me even happier.  We hung out occasionally and shared a lot of fun times.  He was a constant presence in my life.“

“One really quintessential, generous Jory moment, in 2001, was when I had a crush on a girl and I wanted to impress her.  I came up with this plan to steal one of her teaching props, a hand puppet, and then take pictures of if everywhere in Fairfax, sort of like the adventures of garden gnomes.  Jory was so wonderful in setting up the various shots, even convincing the Fire Department to let us set up some pictures on their truck, and of course, on his crazy tricycle as well.   She was really touched by the gesture and often referred to it in later years,” explained Scott.  

There is no one who can tell this story better than Scott, so I am grateful to him that I can share his “Jory Story” with you. 

 MOSFET's Marvelous Weekend Adventure

Winding the clock back to 2001-2 for this one, I was working part-time as a lab Instructor for Ex'pression Center (now Ex'pression SAE College) In Emeryville, just above Oakland.  I taught Sound Department students the basics of MIDI and DAW production as a supplement to the lectures they had in class.  I enjoyed hanging around other Instructors and students In an Intense and creative environment and found myself useful as I was one of the few who understood the tech side of Macs and DAWs, so I was often getting called In to help advise or assist setups here and there.

I had gotten into Ex'pression through the advice of the course director of the Studio Maintenance program in 2000, and as I started working in the same work and musical environment with her, I found myself smitten.  She was incredibly smart, down to earth, funny, and a great musician and improviser, as well as being an excellent live recording engineer.  Eventually I got it In my head that I wanted to do a romantic prank to her that I had seen done in the movie Amelie.  In that movie, someone “borrows” a yard gnome statue from someone's yard and then goes off on adventures with it and takes pictures of the gnome in various settings.  Eventually the gnome is returned and has a pouch around its neck contaInIng the pIctures of the gnome's “vacation.”  

In this case, the course director used a furry hand puppet of a rodent, a marmot to be precise, named MOSFET, as an entertaining teaching aid for the students in her classes.  (For those not acquainted with electronic components, a MOSFET is a type of transistor.)  Everyone recognized it and she occasionally even did small funny shows for the benefit of her co-workers.  Anyway, she would leave it on her desk when she left for home, as she considered it more of a work prop than anything else.  So, I began to hatch a plot in my head that I would borrow Mosfet and take him on an adventure and return him with some pictures.  Needing a partner in pseudo-romantic crime, right away I contacted Jory and told him of my plans.  He was only too willing to help and started thinking about various settings where to photograph the puppet.  Eventually Friday night came around and after the teachers left, I went to the faculty area and spirited MOSFET away in my backpack, hoping no security cams would notice.

Jory on his tricked out trike

When I got to Jory's place on Saturday with MOSFET and a disposable camera in my hand, the game was well and truly afoot.  Jory enjoyed every minute of it. This was prior to the existence of Studio Jory.  He was living in a downstairs apartment in a house and had his standup composer shack set up a few feet away.  Oddly enough, I hardly remember the living place itself in that area (maybe he didn't live there but had his shack there? not sure) but I remember the shack very well.  This was also the time period that he had the incredibly tricked out trike bike, complete with streamers, bulb horns and bell, and the attached wagon of course.  So, we started with the area around his shack and we put MOSFET on the trike, of course, complete with sunglasses and all.  It was a lovely day.  For the next picture, Jory thought we should have a photo of a picnic with MOSFET and a friend, so Jory brought along a picnic basket, sunglasses, a checkered gingham blanket, and a stuffed Tigger to keep MOSFET company.  We searched for a place and found an area nearby with a sign on a fence that, among other things, said “Picnics Are Fun.”  He liked the sentiment and thought that would be a good place for a picture, so we set up the various elements and recorded it for posterity.

 After this, we walked over to the fire station and because Jory knew absolutely everyone in town, we were able to put MOSFET on and in a fire truck.  Getting Into the spirit of the thing, the fireman scrounged up a child's plastic fireman's hat that MOSFET could wear for the pictures.  It was still pretty big on him, though, but definitely a highlight of the photo session, for sure!  After this, we journeyed into Golden Gate Park and finished the session with lots of shots of MOSFET next to many flowers and in the Hagiwara Japanese Tea Garden. 

MOSFET's Marvelous Weekend Adventure Photos

I drove Jory back to Fairfax and then came home, mission accomplished.  After developing the prints from the camera (2 copies so I could have one of my own), I put one copy in a little envelope around MOSFET's neck and returned him back to his proper place in the faculty area.  My crush was, of course, very touched by the whole thing and talked about MOSFET's weekend about town with many folks.  Ultimately, nothing came of my overtures.  In the end, I will always remember that Jory made this prank even more extra special with his unique sense of fun and excitement, as he often did with everything he experienced.

Thank you so much, Scott Looney.  Your story truly captures Jory’s playfulness, creativity, and sensitivities.  We are extremely grateful.

Leslye, Scott, and Sam at CalArts

COMMENTS:  

Click on Jorysmother@gmail.com to send comments.

Jory Prum   2008
I am a born romantic.  I enjoy doing things for a girl I'm interested in just because it'll make her feel special and loved.  I want her to have stories she can be excited to tell her friends.

Jory Prum   2008
I enjoy doing things for others.

Scott Looney  

Thanks so much for publishing this. I've been reading the blog occasionally and enjoying the humor and creativity in them, and I hope one day to find them in the book you mentioned wanting to write. Your words eloquently illustrate what a special and unique being he was.

Elaine Socol

I just took the time to read your last 3 blogs of your Jory Story. Each blog makes me smile, but there is a more emotional response to Jory as well. What a joy to read and what a joy to realize how you and Sam equipped him to be such a mentor and role model for others. I’m sorry I never met Jory in person, but your wonderful way of writing about him brings Jory to life.....and makes it easy to envision the ups and downs you experienced with him.....and the patience you exhibited when you took the time to understand and listen to your little guy. 

Elaine Asa
Unfortunately, I don’t have any Jory stories but I live vicariously through the wonderful stories of Jory’s adventures and life experiences. He certainly was 1 of a kind and though he is not here physically he certainly is here through these wonderful stories which give reality to his spirit. May the sharing of these stories continue to bring blessings to Jory’s legacy and may this bring comfort  to you and the family and all those who knew and loved him.



Gail Hara
What a wonderful and unique guy. Keep his stories alive.

Molly Presser

Thanks for another true free spirit, kind, creative and loving Jory adventure.

Thanks for letting us go together with you on this journey.

James Bolner
Your latest Jory story is wonderful!  Thank you. 

© Leslye J. Prum   All rights reserved.   2017

On The Cutting Edge

Jory with his crazy train hard hat

Train Timetable

When Jory asked questions about how things worked, Sam was great at explaining them to him in great detail.  When Dad was away on travel for work, we looked things up in books.  It became a habit to find just the right books to answer his many questions.  He was interested in everything and needed to know what made them work.  He loved trains and had a book of timetables.  He could tell anyone who asked, when the Amtrak train was going from San Diego to Los Angeles through Fullerton.  If someone wanted to go to Albuquerque, he could plan the best route for him or her via rail.  When he decided to teach himself to play guitar, I handed him a book of chords and he figured them out.  When I wanted to learn Photoshop, he installed it on my computer and handed me a book, saying I could call him when I ran into problems.

Much of Jory's knowledge base was self-taught.  Curiosity sparked his diving into books, followed by processing what he had read with critical thinking.  Thoughts of how this new information could be applied in different ways preceded trial and error experimentation.  He always wanted to be on the cutting edge with new ideas and ways of doing things.  He loved the challenge.

Putting up the wallboard in the dead room

Jory’s biggest dream was to have his own recording studio, so he decided to build one with help from his friends and Fairfax neighbors.  Of course, it couldn’t be just a regular recording studio, it had to have perfect acoustics to satisfy Jory’s gift of acute hearing and perfect pitch.  Its largest space was a “dead room” with neutral sound, meaning it could have no reverberations or extra sounds like echos, buzzes from the air conditioner, or outside noises from the adjacent baseball field.  It was built as a floating room within a larger room, with 3-foot-wide sound buffering space between the walls.   

Jory in the dead room

He enlisted his friend Tony Grimani, an expert in acoustics, co-developer of THX, and a colleague from Lucas (SkyWalker Sound) days, to design and tune the room. They selected wooden floors, strong attenuation sound panels to absorb high frequencies, and acoustic diffusers to treat distortions.  Studio.jory.org earned the reputation of being the best sounding independent recording space in the San Francisco Bay Area, producing outstanding spatial rendition, smooth bass, and excellent dialog clarity.

Jory’s personal domain was really in the adjacent control room where he recorded music, dialogue, and sound effects, followed by masterfully mixing them into the final product.  He equipped his room with a 128 channel recording and mixing capability.  Speakers surrounded the recording engineer with the same surround sound technology used in movie theaters.  About that time, video games were emerging as a major player in the entertainment industry.  

Jory in the control room

In general, Jory was frustrated by the poor sound quality of video games.  He decided that adding more realistic sound effects to video games, enhanced by surround sound, would greatly increase the users’ enjoyment, and lead to more game sales.  He faced several obstacles, starting with the devices on which the games were played, for they were not equipped with multi-level sound output.  He became the solo sound guy on several professional committees of acoustic engineers developing the new standards for sound in computer driven electronics.  He confidently went to Apple and Microsoft to gain their support.  

Jory with award for best dialogue for
The Walking Dead Video Game

Game developers were converting the stories originally written for movies and TV into video games.  While he championed the use of improved sound in video games, Jory also pleaded with the game developers to hire professional voice actors.   He had began directing and recording dialogue for Telltale Games, a new company started by former Lucas Arts employees, like himself.  He had a talent for knowing what the character should sound like and finding just the right actor to represent it.  He was enthusiastic, proactive, and tenacious, becoming the change agent for realistic, authentic sound and dialogue in video games.  One concrete result was that Jory and his dialogue production team were nominated nine times for "Best Voice Acting" Aggie Awards and won three times.  In addition, he also won multiple awards from the Game Audio Network Guild and the Norwegian Game Awards.  The bonus for the game developers was that his games sold well.

Bardeen, Shockley, & Brittain, co-inventors of the transistor,
which is often considered Bell Labs' greatest innovation. 1948

One of Jory's video game clients had a game that required the sound of a doorbell.  Most likely, any doorbell sound would have been passable, but Jory always strived for perfection and authenticity.  Since his teenage years, he had been fascinated with telephony and again began to wonder about why doorbells and phones had their particular rings.  He began extensive research on the subject, leading him to the archives at the University of California Berkeley, where copies of all the research papers from Bell Labs are stored.  For hours and weeks, he hibernated in the Berkeley library reading the complex, intricate, documentation and learning all about the science and engineering behind telephony.    

“Dad,” he called home with excitement, “you can't imagine how interesting this is.  The Bell Labs research starting from the 1920's and '30's is amazing and I'm learning so much.  People just aren't aware of how innovative and far reaching Bell Labs’ work has been.  I've been invited to speak to a couple of groups at Berkeley and I'm going to apply to do a TED Talk on the Bell Labs papers.”  Jory’s enthusiasm was contagious.

Rabbi Joseph Smith sharing a pun with Jory at his Bar Mitzvah

Written by James Joyce
 and published in 1939

In his spare time, Jory took on James Joyce by reading Finnegan’s Wake.  Joyce is regarded as one of the most influential and important authors of the 20th century, so Jory decided that he had much to learn from him.  His first challenge was the vocabulary.  It is written in a peculiar and obscure English, further complicated by its use of complex multi-level puns.  Jory had come to love puns when he was studying for his Bar Mitzvah with Rabbi Joseph Smith, whom Jory referred to as “The Pun Master.”  As he read Finnegan’s Wake, he added a new element to his internet website:  Word Of The Day.  Every day Jory posted a new word and it's definition, from what he had learned from reading Joyce.  His ulterior motive was to increase his vocabulary to apply to his daily subscription of the New York Times Crossword Puzzles or word games like Scrabble.

Jory first went to Norway as a tourist.  He fell in love with the fresh air and blue skies, mountains resplendent with waterfalls, and efficient public transportation.  He bonded with the Norwegian video game developers and found that he could help them grow to a world-class industry, as well as bring in new clients to studio.jory.org.  He began spending more and more time in Norway:  working, making friends, and exploring the country. 

Norway’s public transportation system attracted him like a magnet.  It's convenient, cost efficient, and reliable, all very important to Jory.  Best of all, was that he could access all the train, bus, and ferry schedules and buy his tickets on the internet.  For fun, he would plan trips all over the country using online train timetables.  He also found that information on museums and their contents were online.  It was a tourist’s goldmine that needed to be shared.

Highlights of Norway for Tourists

Jory, always a techie at heart, decided to develop an avant-garde tourist guide of Norway.  He included everything that a tourist needed to know to be his own educated and efficient tour guide.  He compiled maps of cities and the countryside; menus of museums, which included locations, hours of operation, transportation options, and virtual online tours where tourists could see the museum offerings, learn ahead of time the history and backgrounds of what they would see, and even purchase online admission tickets.  He had a section for online train, bus, waterways, and air schedules to get tourists where they wanted to go, including the online purchase of tickets for travel and entrance to most venues.  He was also planning to include a section for locating good places to eat.  All of this would be totally accessible on a mobile phone and/or tablet that tourists would bring with them.  He was just about to publish his online tourist guide when his life was cut short, but he did write "Thawing Streams of Consciousness," printed below, describing the magnificent train ride from Bodø to Trondheim.

When Fairfax resident, Michael Leifer, came to Jory with a fantastic idea to write ecology textbooks for middle school students in California, Jory jumped right in.  Michael had dropped into Jory's studio to tell him about the project he shared with a group of ecology-minded dads who had kids in middle school.  Jory was a bright student in school, but often complained that textbooks were dull and boring.  Seeing this opportunity to improve education for others, as well as be on the cutting edge of something new and exciting, Jory became equally excited about Michael’s idea to create iBooks for iPads.  He volunteered to be on the team.

Michael wrote the texts, and Jory breathed technology into them by infusing interactive opportunities for readers.  For example, to enable the students to learn first hand about the movement of tides, Jory provided a button on the iPad that accessed the camera on top of the Golden Gate Bridge.  Instantly, by clicking on the button, students could see the tides flowing below the bridge in real time.  Throughout the books, technology piqued their interest and made learning a more interactive and exciting experience.  Jory is listed as co-author on all four books that he and Michael created.  Energy and Material Resources and Made From Earth, are currently available for download with iBooks on Apple iTunes.

“Amazing books!” extolled Michael.  “Teachers and students have been loving them.”

COMMENTS:  

Click on Jorysmother@gmail.com to send comments.

Jory Prum   February 1, 2009

In my immediate vicinity right now are: a MacBook Pro, 2 Mac Minis, 2 Apple TVs, and a slew and hard drives, keyboards, mice, networking equipment, and other techy things. And I'm at HOME. The studio has at least twice as much geekery going on!

Jory Prum  May 13, 2009  "Thawing Streams of Consciousness"

More great views from the train. There really are no words to describe the view during the train ride from Bodø to Trondheim. Just like the weather in Norway, if you don't like the view (an impossibility at best), just wait 3 minutes and it'll change completely. The problem is that this journey is every bit an emotional experience as it is a visual one. I could take ten thousand photographs with the best camera and I still couldn't convey what I'm seeing pass by. Posting twelve hours of video shot from both my window and the right-hand side of the train wouldn't provide you with anything as remotely meaningful as making this trip yourself.

At the moment (two hours into the 10-and-a-half-hour trip), we're just south of Lønsdal, high in the mountains, with unmarred snow fields extending up the mountain- and hill-sides until they seemlessly meet the sky. Portions of the lakes and streams are still frozen, although the enormous waterfalls we've already encountered (sometimes from just twenty feet away) remind us that the Spring thaw is well under way.

Not everything is snow-covered, though. There are patches of brown grasses, sometimes in large swaths, which help show the contours of the gently-rolling hills that have come to overtake the view in the past three minutes.

Without warning, the hilly sections are gone and the landscape to the left of the train extends gently upward, still joining with the sky at some undiscernable horizon. It's like sitting at the very top of the world, where there can be nothing higher than us; as if the clouds, in their completely untextured mass, are within hands' reach and might be solid, much like the ceiling of my hobbit hole or sitting in the very top seats of the bleachers at a basketball arena.

Suddenly there's a small building. Who comes up here? It doesn't look like anyone is ever in this part of the world, apart from those of us watching the unreal display through the carriage windows.

Another building, this one bigger and more like a visitor's center. And a bridge with no visible road on either side, completely blanketed by snow.

Lacking fanfare, a moment later we pass a small obelisk made of stones the size of footballs and supporting a wire-frame globe at its acme. It looks like a small rendition a much larger marker that was visible at 7:06am from the Hurtigruten yesterday morning. I check the atlas I purchased from a used book shop in Trondheim and sure enough, we've just descended below the Arctic Circle. I feel a moment of sadness that the Arctic portion of my adventures has ended already, a mere 40 hours later.

No time to dwell, though. In the time it took me to grab the atlas (a total of 30-45 seconds), the landscape has changed yet again. There are now scores of deciduous trees along the snowy, mountainous hillside we're gliding along. The clouds have become shapely once more and the snow, while still patchy, has a different texture to it.

The landscape continues to morph. Just ahead is an enormous mountain, its peak obscured by clouds in the way my imagination tells me the Alps probably look. The leaf-less trees are becoming denser, competing with the brown patches to make the hillside look less snowy. But they lose out where the treeline limits them and only the most vertical slopes remain anything but white.

Yet again the surroundings have evolved. Beginning with a high, unseeable peak, pure white gives way to trees, which in turn gives way to earth and dark brown grasses. The bottom of the valley we are following is completely free of snow.

We enter a tunnel. That act in itself often means that what was visible just moments ago is likely only a fresh memory, soon to be replaced by a new, equally awe-inspiring view.

This time, however, we come back to the same scene, continuing down the valley, with tall, skinny trees being replaced by evergreens.

Which morphs again into a mountain community near the tracks, where houses of burnt umber and deep reds, built with exquisite craftmanship and detail, are the norm.

And so it goes.

Jory Prum March 2015  "beep"

I do surround in here (studio.jory.org) so I was able to play around with the 5.1 output in HTML5 audio, which is pretty cool.  There's just really cool things you can do with it.

When they (Game Developers) just let me have free reign, it's kind of fun because I can make things and just go, "Oh, I think it sounds like this," and more often than not, if they sit with it for, you know, for a week or so they can't imagine it sounding like anything else ever again, which is great. So it's fun.

Michael Leifer  April 24, 2016

Many of you knew the enthusiast smiling and witty Jory as an artist, humorist, producer, audio editor, musician, and much more, but you may not know that he was a driven environmentalist, obsessed with Education and wanted to make it much better by making it more experiential. He also believed that climate change was real based on all the NASA and NOAH data, and felt that future generations and teachers needed to have better ecological literacy options within their classrooms. Based on the success of our work on these initial iBooks, Jory was interested in creating and launching a company focused on digital textbooks to be called "Touchable Books"!   Anyway....thought you all should know about the amazing environmental ecological literacy work Jory Prum helped to inspire and create. I’m honored and really proud to have collaborated with him and really miss him, especially his laugh

Molly Presser 

Jory definitely inherited your talent for writing.  Thanks for sharing all of his wisdom in addition to his beautiful descriptions of Norway, the country he fell in love with.  Love reading all you write. Wish I could talk to him and tell him how wonderful he is.  Since I can't do that, I'm telling you and Sam about your wonderful son and how lucky he was to have inherited your genes and to have had your love and support in all he did.

Gail Kraushar
These stories are a wonderful tribute to your amazing son, but I was particularly struck by the one about Norway.  I set aside the blogs to binge-read when we returned from a recent trip to Europe, which included, of all things, a stop in Norway. I had no idea before we went that it was a favorite destination of Jory’s. 

The scenery was indeed breathtaking but the tons of photos I took cannot nearly do it justice as well as Jory’s vivid and moving descriptions.  He was a fine writer in addition to his many other talents.  Thanks for posting all the entries, and this one in particular.

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