Modern Times

In Primary Sunday, I told a chalkboard story about a father and grown son who lived on either side of a tall mountain. I asked the class how the father and son could communicate if they were unable to travel over the mountain. First two answers? Text and Skype.

lol

Makings of a Good Day

A new iPad and $200. What's not to love?

Friends for Life

What does it say about me when the party who most often texts me is my local Sonic?

What Would We Do Without FB?

My life will not complete until I have visited the Home for Wayward Babydolls. Who's up for a road trip?

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image: Image of dolls hanging over and piled on a canopied bed in a room in Chicago, Illinois [photonegative]. ca. 1904. Chicago Daily News negatives collection, DN-0002099. Courtesy of Chicago History Museum. Available from American Memory at http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r?ammem/cdn:@field(NUMBER+@band(ichicdn+n002099))

Facebook Free, Day One

After much ambivalence about Facebook, I've deactivated my account. I can reactivate it any time by logging in again, but in the meantime, my account is basically in deep freeze.

I thought about logging in several times today, and I already feel a bit out of the loop, but I'm hoping the break will be a good thing. I usually don't spend long stretches of time on FB, but I am there multiple times a day. It was one distraction I felt I could give up while I concentrate on my emotional and spiritual health, and I knew the only way to curb my use was to cut my access for now.

The Good and the Bad, the Back to School Edition

Bad: Waking up at 5 am wondering if any assignments are due today.
Good: Checking D2L from my phone without leaving the comfort of my bed.
Better: Finding out nothing is due for the next week.
Best: Following it up with some reading on the Book of Mormon app.

My Debut

A coworker and I are giving an hour long webinar today. I didn't think it would be a big deal until we started practicing. Turns out, this is much more difficult than speaking in front of a live audience. With no visual connection to your audience and a mic right next to your mouth (they can see my slides and hear me but not see me), there is no margin for error. Kind of like moving from the piano to the organ--you know the basics, but there are so many new subtle differences waiting to trip you up, and the new medium is much less forgiving than the familiar one.

For those in the know, this is the same presentation (about new and remodeled library classrooms) we gave in Columbus at the beginning of the month, repeated online for a new audience.

Needless to say, I'll be glad when this is over. Too bad I have all kinds of other overdue task waiting to be completed when this is done.

A Day in the Life

BTW, that's my favorite Beatles' song.

Anyway, for those who wonder what I do at work when I'm not blogging, gossiping, or surfing the Internet, here's a visual aid: http://screencast.com/t/HABoXPPi7rQ You'll need speakers or headphones to get the full effect.

I produced this video on the fly while answering an online chat question from a student who simply wasn't grasping the Article Linker steps. I'd like to say the student watched the video and went on her merry way. Unfortunately, I produced the video at the 25 minute mark in our chat. Thirty-five minutes later, the student still hasn't showed signs of moving on. *sigh*

Wouldn't It Be Nice? A Non-Illustrated Post

Because I often don't get to work at an early hour, I usually turn on the computer while I'm getting ready for work and monitor my e-mail, reply to a few messages, etc. It eases some of the guilt about being such a late starter.

Is it a surprise to anyone that I would rather sit in my bedroom all day and work from home in my pajamas rather than make myself presentable and go to the office? It's actually the "make myself presentable" part that I detest. If I could wake up, do the essentials (bathroom and teeth), and get in the car, I'd be happy to go to work every day. I might even be one of the first ones there (well, maybe). But I've been known to go to great lengths to avoid showering, putting on makeup, and fixing my hair.

If I stink, will you please tell me? I don't want to be offensive. I'm just mourning the slow realization of the ultra sonic shower machine (think George Jetson).

How I Spent Saturday Night

Sunday's Primary lesson is on being an example. In order to involve a student who is autistic, I have been illustrating some of the lessons with comic panes (he will usually pay attention if something has word bubbles). This week, I drew and scanned several figures and then assembled everything in Word. Not the most efficient method, but perhaps legible than my 100% freehand attempts.

(You'll need to click on each pane to see it in large format)

A Poll

Should Auntie K spend $65 on iTunes to completely catch up on Lost?

Slippery Slope

One day without legitimate home Internet access and what am I doing? Cadging a connection and shopping for Internet packages.

Apparently, crossword puzzles can only take you so far.

Unplugged

After yet another look at my finances, I've decided to give up home cable and Internet access, at least for several months.

Yes I know, bad timing, with new episodes of Monk, Psych, Lost, and L&O: CI on the horizon. And having Internet access at home has been marvelous, since it enables me to do things like blog at 1:15 am without leaving the house (or even my bed, for that matter).

However, I can think of a lot I can do with $110.16 a month, not the least of which is start paying down some of the temporary debt I'm going to incur by moving.

I think I'll be OK, as long as no one mentions The Closer.

My TV is Broken, Or, an Adage Proved

I own an inherited TV with a universal remote. I'm not complaining in the least, but that piece of information may help you understand why I've never been able to turn on closed captioning while the TV volume is up. So, if I need to backtrack to see what pithy insult Greg House has just hurled at some deserving minion, I have to mute the volume. I often wished I could have captions and sound at the same time.

As they say, be careful of what you hope for, because it might come true. And so it has for me. I don't know what magic remote button I pushed, but now I have closed captioning all the time and I can't turn it off.

Any advice?

Anti-Awesome

My weekend trip was very good, and I loved seeing three of my nieces. More about that later, perhaps. The week back at work was particularly tough, filled with four very long days, and I'm looking at more work over the weekend. :-(

So, this post will only be a short rant against Mozilla. Please ignore me if you have no interest in Firefox (or think it's only the name of a movie).

The Firefox 3 location bar is, imho, decidedly anti-awesome. In what world is my bookmark for a government Web site about raw fruits and vegetables relevant to my action of typing www into the location bar? It's not relevant in my world, and I don't want to see it cluttering up my computer screen, along with all my other bookmarked sites that have some vague connection to the letter w.

If I want to search for a site containing a "w" I'm going to use the handy search engine box next to the location bar. Call me old-fashioned, but I liked my plain-jane location bar, and I didn't start typing in it unless I knew the URL I wanted.

Trust me, I'll either be trying a fix or returning this upgrade to the sender.

Being Human

I will meticulously check the size and position of every text box in my PowerPoint presentation to ensure they are exactly the same.

On the other hand, I'm perfectly OK with the permanent detritus that floats on the floor below the bed.

Looking Back

I gave a coworker my blog URL today, so of course I had to come home and post and add some tags so he doesn't think I'm totally lame (You see, I obviously don't care if my current readers think I'm totally lame!).

While adding tags, I looked at this old To Do List. It's particularly amusing to read it in "Edit Posts" view, where the bulleted list shows up as an unpunctuated runon sentence. It turns out I have actually done a few things on that list in the two years since I wrote it. For example,

I have a tiny little Flickr account (it would be better if I saw nieces and nephews more often, so I wouldn't have to take photos of myself and my groceries) (thanks for the comments, Starr--you're my Flickr idol.)

I have a Bloglines account, though I haven't logged on in the past two years.

I have a digital camera, an updated resume, a job as the result of those job apps, a Library Thing account, a wiki (that wasn't even on the list), and my car is registered, though not in the same state.

I never taught myself CSS or updated my online portfolio and I still don't drink enough water.

But I passed Capstone and graduated, and I've even taken a few showers since then.

All in a Day's Work

It took me far longer than it would take many people, but I managed to shoot and upload some photos of the art installation today, both to my Flickr account and to the library's account (the two sets are nearly identical).

Learning to make a mosaic will have to wait until another day.

Live to Shop, or Shop to Live?

Based on this week's purchases, I think I fall somewhere in between the two extremes of living to shop and shopping to live. What do you think?

MS Office 2007 Standard (we're switching over at work, so I really don't have a choice but to get a copy for home)

2GB flash drive, because you never know when you might need another one

USB hub, because I'm tired of fooling with ports at work that I can't see well

Numeric keypad for the laptop, probably not a necessity, but after paying for MS Office...

Two bras, because, well, I don't need to explain that

Multimeter, to test the watch batteries in the clickers at work (except I think the model I bought doesn't even test batteries. Dad?)

Telescoping magnetic pickup tool, because it was there, and I do love magnets

Various groceries from Kroger, all relatively nutritious, believe it or not, with the exception of one Cadbury Creme Egg

photo: Colville student, Walter McClung's account of shopping trip, Spokane, Washington, June 12, 1902. Eastern Washington State Historical Society. Available at http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r?ammem/aipn:@field(DOCID+@lit(p1101))

Price of Technology

A flat screen monitor takes up less space on the desk, but it also affords no flat surface on which to store papers.

Two steps forward, one step back.